>rnia 

a 


THE  SAYINGS  OF 
CONFUCIUS 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

IN  MEMORY  OF 
MRS.  VIRGINIA  B.  SPORER 


TOlfs&om  of  tbe  East  Series 

EDITED  BY 

L.   CRANMER-BYNG 

Dr.    S.    A.    KAPADIA. 


THE  SAYINGS  OF  CONFUCIUS 


WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST 

THE  SAYINGS   OF 
CONFUCIUS 

A  NEW  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  GREATER 
PART    OF    THE    CONFUCIAN    ANALECTS 

WITH    INTRODUCTION    AND    NOTES 

BY 

LIONEL  GILES,  M.A.  (OxoN.) 

ASSISTANT   IN   THE   DEPARTMENT   OF  ORIENTAL    BOOKS 
AND   MANUSCRIPTS   OF  THE    BRITISH    MUSEUM 


NEW   YORK 

E.   P.   BUTTON   AND   COMPANY 
1910 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION       .       .       ,       '.   .  .        .        .        7 

LIST  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  DISCIPLES  ...      37 

GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS  .       .    .    .      39 

INDIVIDUAL  VIRTUE      ,  -    ,    ,   .  ...      52 

CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS  .        .        .71 

CONFUCIUS  ON  HIMSELF 83 

MISCELLANEOUS  SAYINGS      .  "     »  '  .        .        .      93 

PERSONALIA  .        .       •    •  »       *  >*":.:-(*-*.    -.    109 

CONFUCIUS  AS  SEEN  BY  OTHERS  .  .        .        .117 

SAYINGS  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  .       *  .       .       .    125 


20470S 


EDITORIAL    NOTE 

T^HE  object  of  the  Editors  of  this  series  is  a 
very  definite  one.  They  desire  above  all 
things  that,  in  their  humble  way,  these  books 
shall  be  the  ambassadors  of  goodwill  and 
understanding  between  East  and  West — the  old 
world  of  Thought  and  the  new  of  Action.  In 
this  endeavour,  and  in  their  own  sphere,  they 
are  but  followers  of  the  highest  example  in  the 
land.  They  are  confident  that  a  deeper  know- 
ledge of  the  great  ideals  and  lofty  philosophy 
of  Oriental  thought  may  help  to  a  revival  of 
that  true  spirit  of  Charity  which  neither  despises 
nor  fears  the  nations  of  another  creed  and  colour. 
Finally,  in  thanking  press  and  public  for  the 
very  cordial  reception  given  to  the  "  Wisdom 
of  the  East  "  Series,  they  wish  to  state  that 
no  pains  have  been  spared  to  secure  the  best 
specialists  for  the  treatment  of  the  various 
subjects  at  hand. 

L.  CRANMER-BYNG. 
S.  A.  KAPADIA. 

NORTHBROOK    SOCIETY, 

185,  PICCADILLY,  W. 


INTRODUCTION 

/CONFUCIUS  is  one  of  the  few  supremely  great 
\^  figures  in  the  world's  history.  A  man's 
greatness  must  always  be  measured,  in  the  first 
place,  by  the  consensus  of  opinion  in  his  own 
country  ;  the  judgment  of  foreigners  can  only  be 
allowed  to  have  a  secondary  value.  Especially 
is  this  true  when  the  critics  are  not  only  foreigners, 
but  belong  to  a  totally  different  order  of  civilisa- 
tion from  the  men  whose  greatness  they  would 
appraise.  For  even  if  they  can  keep  their  minds 
free  from  purely  national  bias  of  the  unreasoning 
sort,  they  will  naturally  look  for  such  attributes 
as  are  highly  prized  among  themselves,  and  feel 
disappointed  if  these  are  not  much  in  evidence. 
They  will  be  apt  to  see  certain  defects  too  plainly, 
whereas  they  may  easily  overlook  or  fail  to  ap- 
preciate to  the  full  those  very  qualities  on  which 
the  title  to  greatness  is  mainly  based.  These 
errors  and  prejudices  will,  doubtless,  tend  to 
disappear  as  more  intimate  knowledge  is  gained 
and  the  essential  unity  of  human  nature  shows 


8  INTRODUCTION 

itself  beneath  the  accidents  of  custom  and  en- 
vironment. But  the  process  will  always  be  slow. 
The  name  of  Confucius  may  be  deemed  sufficiently 
familiar  in  the  West  to  render  unnecessary  any 
revision  of  the  popular  verdict  which  has  already 
been  passed  on  him.  But  are  his  judges  equally 
familiar  with  the  teaching  which  his  name  re- 
presents ?  The  name  of  Shakespeare  was  well 
enough  known  to  Frenchmen  in  the  time  of 
Voltaire.  Yet  how  many  generations  had  to 
pass  ere  they  began  to  recognise  his  true  great- 
ness ?  The  parallel  between  dramatist  and  social 
reformer  may  seem  strained,  but  it  is  not  drawn 
at  random.  In  both  cases,  wide  differences  of 
language  and  the  inadequacy  of  translations  to 
bridge  the  gap,  lie  at  the  root  of  the  trouble. 

No  great  man  has  suffered  more  than  Confucius 
from  the  stupidity,  the  misstatements  and  the 
misrepresentations,  from  the  lack  of  sympathy 
and  generosity,  and,  in  some  points,  from  the 
pure  ignorance  of  his  critics.  Early  travellers 
arriving  from  the  West,  amongst  a  people  utterly 
alien  to  themselves  in  almost  every  detail — 
language,  dress,  habits,  modes  of  thought,  ethical 
ideals  and  general  view  of  life — would  have  done 
well  to  walk  very  warily  and,  in  the  Confucian 
phrase,  "  to  reserve  their  judgment  "  on  what 
they  saw  and  heard  around  them.  But  patience 
and  discrimination  were  the  very  last  virtues 
which  these  inquisitive  newcomers  had  a  mind 


INTRODUCTION  9 

to  practise  ;  and,  unluckily,  the  extraordinary 
fame  of  the  national  sage  marked  him  out  as  one 
of  the  earliest  victims  to  their  thirst  for  the 
marvellous.  On  the  strength  of  Chinese  evidence, 
readily  forthcoming  and  eagerly  swallowed,  the 
most  exaggerated  accounts  of  this  new  luminary 
were  poured  into  the  ears  of  Europe,  and  it  may 
well  be  imagined  that  these  enthusiastic  reports 
suffered  no  diminution  in  the  telling.  Confucius 
was  the  prince  of  philosophers,  the  wisest  and 
most  consummate  of  sages,  the  loftiest  moralist, 
the  most  subtle  and  penetrating  intellect  that 
the  world  had  ever  seen.  He  was  a  statesman, 
a  bard,  an  historian  and  an  antiquary  rolled 
into  one.  His  sagacity  put  the  most  illustrious 
of  ancient  and  modern  philosophers  to  shame. 
He  was  the  greatest  and  noblest  representative 
of  the  greatest,  happiest,  and  most  highly 
civilised  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Such 
extravagant  eulogy  could  only  pave  the  way  for 
disillusionment.  When,  after  the  lapse  of  a 
hundred  years  or  so,  foreigners  had  painfully 
acquired  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  language  to 
enable  them  to  begin  translating,  after  a  fashion, 
parts  of  the  Classics  said  to  have  been  composed 
by  this  glorious  sage,  or  at  least  containing  the 
choicest  pearls  of  his  wisdom  still  extant,  it  is 
not  altogether  surprising  that  the  results  did 
not  come  up  to  the  general  expectation.  Reac- 
tion set  in,  and  it  soon  became  the  fashion  to 


10  INTRODUCTION 

decry  the  once  much-lauded  philosopher.  His 
sayings,  which  had  been  extolled  as  the  very 
epitome  of  wisdom,  were  now  voted  jejune  and 
commonplace.  His  teaching  was  found  to  be 
shallow,  disjointed,  unsatisfying.  He  was  blamed 
for  his  materialistic  bias,  for  his  rigid  formalism, 
for  his  poverty  of  ideas,  for  his  lack  of  spiritual 
elevation.  Comparisons,  much  in  his  disfavour, 
were  drawn  between  him  and  the  founders  of 
other  world-systems  of  religion  and  ethics.  All 
this  before  the  circumstances  of  Lis  career  had 
been  studied,  before  the  surface  of  contemporary 
Chinese  history  had  been  so  much  as  scratched, 
before  the  host  of  native  commentators  and 
critics  had  been  consulted,  or  their  existence 
even  become  known  ;  above  all,  before  the  very 
book  which  contained  his  authentic  sayings  had 
been  translated  with  anything  approaching  to 
exactness  or  understanding,  or  with  a  faint 
realisation  of  its  numerous  difficulties  and  pit- 
falls. 

Such  was  still  the  deplorable  state  of  things 
when  Legge  set  to  work  on  his  translation  of  the 
Confucian  Canon,  which  when  completed  many 
years  later,  with  its  exhaustive  prolegomena, 
notes  and  appendices,  formed  a  truly  wonderful 
monument  of  research  and  erudition.  With  its 
publication,  Chinese  scholarship  was  carried  at 
once  to  a  higher  plane,  and  foreign  study  of 
Confucian  doctrine  began  in  earnest.  The  heavy 


INTRODUCTION  11 

accumulations  of  ignorance  and  error  were  in 
large  part  removed,  and  the  figure  of  the  great 
Teacher  began  at  last  to  emerge  from  the  "  ob- 
literating sands  of  time."  His  sayings  were  no 
longer  read  as  interesting  but  desultory  fragments 
of  conversation,  but  studied  in  relation  to  the 
events  of  his  life.  From  various  Chinese  sources, 
the  chief  of  which  were  the  Analects  themselves 
and  Ssu-ma  Ch'ien's  biography,  Legge  managed 
to  compile  a  good  and  coherent  account  of  the 
sage's  life,  work  and  wanderings,  which  was  an 
enormous  advance  on  anything  that  had  been 
done  before,  and  is  not  likely,  even  in  the  future, 
to  undergo  any  considerable  addition  or  amend- 
ment. There  are  many  minor  points  which  may 
be  disputed,  and  many  long  blanks  which  may 
never  be  filled  up,  but  taken  as  a  whole,  the 
chronology  and  the  leading  events  of  the  life  of 
Confucius  must  now  be  considered  as  finally 
settled. 

If  Legge  is  on  firm  ground  where  hard  facts 
are  concerned,  it  is  far  otherwise  when  he  comes 
to  draw  inferences  from  these  facts,  to  sum  up 
the  salient  principles  of  Confucian  ethics,  and  to 
pass  judgment  on  the  character  of  Confucius 
himself.  His  pronouncements  on  these  points, 
too  hastily  accepted  as  final,  need  to  be  carefully 
re-examined  and,  as  I  shall  hope  to  show,  largely 
modified  if  not  totally  reversed.  His  opinion, 
of  course,  was  based  chiefly  on  his  own  inter- 


12  INTRODUCTION 

pretation  of  the  more  important  sayings  in 
the  Analects,  in  translating  which  he  had  the 
oral  help  of  native  scholars,  besides  the  benefit 
of  voluminous  standard  commentaries.  Thus 
equipped  for  his  task,  it  cannot  but  appear  strange 
that  he,  admittedly  a  great  sinologue,  should 
have  gone  so  far  astray  as  to  miss  the  very  core 
and  essence  of  the  doctrines  to  the  elucidation 
of  which  he  devoted  most  of  his  life.  The  ex- 
planation may  lie  in  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian missionary  in  the  first  place,  and  only 
secondly  a  scientific  student ;  he  had  come  to 
teach  and  convert  the  heathen,  not  to  be  taught 
or  converted  by  them.  This  preconceived  idea 
acted  as  a  drag  on  the  free  use  of  his  under- 
standing, and  prevented  him  from  entering 
whole-heartedly  into  his  subject.  We  are  told 
that  the  Master  himself  had  "no  foregone  con- 
clusions," but  Legge's  whole  attitude  to  Con- 
fucianism bespoke  one  comprehensive  and  fatal 
foregone  conclusion — the  conviction  that  it  must 
at  every  point  prove  inferior  to  Christianity.  A 
certain  inelasticity  of  mind  showed  itself  also 
in  the  way  hi  which  he  approached  the  work  of 
translation.  He  was  too  apt  to  look  upon  a 
Chinese  word  as  something  rigid  and  unchanging 
in  its  content,  which  might  be  uniformly  rendered 
by  a  single  English  equivalent.  Delicate  shades 
of  meaning  he  too  often  ruthlessly  ignored.  Now 
there  is  a  certain  number  of  Chinese  terms  which 


INTRODUCTION  13 

mirror  Chinese  ideas,  but  have  really  no  absolute 
equivalent  in  English  at  all,  and  must  therefore 
be  translated  with  the  aid  of  circumlocution,  and 
in  such  a  way  as  to  suit  the  context  and  the  general 
spirit  of  the  passage.  It  is  in  such  terms,  unfor- 
tunately, that  the  very  essence  and  inner  sig- 
nificance of  the  Confucian  teaching  are  contained. 
Obviously,  if  proper  equivalents  are  not  given, 
the  whole  sense  of  the  passages  in  which  they 
occur  will  be  lost  or  violently  distorted.  Worse 
still,  the  judgments  laboriously  built  up  on  such 
rotten  foundations  will  be  hopelessly  vitiated. 
Here,  indeed,  we  have  an  object-lesson  of  the 
importance,  clearly  recognised  by  Confucius 
himself,  of  "  defining  terms  "  and  making  "  words 
harmonise  with  things."  Indispensable  as  such 
a  process  is  for  any  investigation  in  which  lan- 
guage plays  a  part,  it  is  doubly  so  when  words 
have  to  be  transplanted,  as  it  were,  from  their 
native  soil  to  one  differing  from  it  in  almost 
every  conceivable  quality.  Such  an  operation 
can  only  be  successful  if  carried  out  with  the 
utmost  delicacy  and  care,  and  no  amount  of 
erudition  can  supply  the  want  of  that  instinctive 
feeling  for  the  right  word  which  is  the  translator's 
choicest  gift.  The  scope  of  the  present  work 
forbids  my  entering  into  details,  but  some  broad 
examples  of  failure  in  this  respect  will  be  noted 
later  on. 

Of  the  life  of  Confucius  only  the  barest  sketch 


14  INTRODUCTION 

can  be  given  here,  but  stress  may  be  laid  on  one 
or  two  points  which  it  is  important  to  bear  in 
mind.  Confucius  was  born  at  a  time  when  the 
feudal  system,  established  several  centuries  earlier 
by  the  founder  of  the  Chou  dynasty,  was  showing 
unmistakable  signs  of  disruption  and  decay.  It 
is  almost  certain  that  China  had  been  feudally 
governed  from  the  very  earliest  times,  but  Wu 
Wang  placed  the  whole  system  on  a  seemingly 
firmer  basis  than  ever.  He  divided  his  realm  into 
a  large  number  of  vassal  states,  which  he  bestowed 
upon  his  own  kith  and  kin  who  had  helped  him 
to  the  throne.  Thus  the  Empire  really  came  to 
resemble  the  huge  united  family  which  Chinese 
political  theorists  declare  it  to  be,  and  for  a  short 
time  all  seems  to  have  worked  smoothly.  But 
as  the  bonds  of  kinship  grew  looser,  the  central 
government  gradually  lost  all  effective  control 
over  its  unruly  children,  and  the  various  states 
were  soon  embroiled  in  perpetual  feuds  and 
struggles  among  themselves,  besides  being  usually 
at  loggerheads  with  the  parent  dynasty.  The 
state  of  things  that  ensued  may  be  likened 
(though  on  a  far  larger  scale)  to  several  Wars  of 
the  Roses  going  on  at  the  same  time,  or  better 
still,  to  the  turbulence  of  the  later  days  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  when  the  fealty  of  its  mem- 
bers had  become  merely  nominal.  Matters  were 
further  complicated  in  many  of  the  states  by  the 
upgrowth  of  large  and  powerful  families  which 


INTRODUCTION  15 

often  attempted  either  by  insidious  methods  or 
by  open  violence  to  wrest  the  supreme  authority 
into  their  own  hands.  Thus  in  Lu,  the  com- 
paratively small  state  to  which  Confucius  belonged, 
there  were  three  such  families,  the  Chi,  the 
Meng,  and  the  Shu  ;  the  heads  of  these  clans, 
of  whom  we  hear  a  good  deal  in  the  Analects, 
had  already,  by  the  time  of  Confucius,  reduced 
their  lawful  prince  (or  duke,  as  he  is  generally 
called)  to  a  condition  of  virtual  dependency. 
On  the  other  hand,  they  themselves  were  some- 
times threatened  by  the  lawless  behaviour  of 
their  own  officers,  such  as  the  ambitious  chariot- 
driver,  Yang  Huo,1  who  thought  nothing  of 
seizing  towns  or  even  the  person  of  his  own  chief, 
in  order  to  hold  him  to  ransom.  Thus,  though 
the  period  of  the  "  Warring  States  "  is  not  usually 
reckoned  as  beginning  until  after  the  death  of 
Confucius,  the  date  is  a  purely  arbitrary  one, 
inasmuch  as  his  whole  life  long  disturbances  were 
rife  and  military  operations  well-nigh  incessant 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  China. 
In  the  midst  of  the  prevailing  disorder,  Confucius 
comported  himself  with  an  admirable  mixture 
of  dignity,  tact  and  outspoken  courage.  Wisely 
opposing  the  dangerous  tendency  to  decentralisa- 
tion, and  upholding  the  supreme  authority  of 
the  Emperor  as  against  his  too  powerful  vassals, 
he  heartily  disapproved  of  the  illegal  usurpations 

1  See  p.  121. 


16  INTRODUCTION 

of  the  dukes,  the  great  families  and  the  soldiers 
of  fortune  that  preyed  one  upon  the  other,  and 
did  not  shrink  on  occasion  from  expressing  his 
disgust  in  unequivocal  terms.  But  knowing  the 
futility  of  protests  unbacked  by  force,  he  kept 
himself  aloof  for  the  most  part,  and  devoted 
himself  to  a  long  course  of  study  and  teaching, 
gathering,  it  is  said,  as  many  as  three  thousand 
disciples  around  him.  This  is  a  palpable  ex- 
aggeration, but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he 
had  become  a  marked  man  and  gained  great 
fame  as  a  moralist  and  teacher  many  years 
before  he  actually  took  office.  In  501  B.C.,  at 
the  age  of  fifty,  he  at  last  made  his  entry  on  the 
political  stage  by  accepting  the  governorship  of 
a  small  town  in  Lu,  Here  he  is  said  to  have  been 
eminently  successful  in  the  work  of  reform,  and 
he  rapidly  rose  to  be  the  most  trusted  adviser 
of  Duke  Ting,  who  on  one  occasion  at  least 
owed  his  life  to  the  courage  and  address  of  his 
minister.  But  it  was  not  long  ere  the  weak  and 
fickle  character  of  the  ruler,  carefully  manipu- 
lated by  rivals  to  Confucius,  brought  about  a 
catastrophe.  The  neighbouring  state  of  Ch'i, 
jealous  of  the  new  prosperity  of  Lu  under  the 
regime  of  the  sage,  cunningly  sent  as  a  gift  to  the 
prince  a  band  of  beautiful  women,  trained  in  song 
and  dance,  and  a  number  of  magnificent  horses, 
in  order  to  distract  his  mind  from  the  serious 
cares  of  state.  The  plotters  had  evidently  taken 


INTRODUCTION  17 

the  measure  of  their  victim,  for  the  artifice 
succeeded,  and  Confucius  felt  compelled  to  resign. 
Then  began  the  weary  years  of  wandering  from 
state  to  state,  in  which  we  cannot  follow  him 
here,  except  to  note  a  sagacious  prophecy  uttered 
by  a  friendly  official  on  the  frontier  of  Wei. 
Coming  out  from  an  interview  with  Confucius, 
he  comforted  the  woebegone  disciples  by  telling 
them  that  their  Master's  divine  mission  was  now 
only  just  beginning.1  It  may,  indeed,  be  that 
the  ensuing  period  of  homeless  exile,  hardships 
and  danger,  did  more  to  spread  the  fame  of  the 
great  reformer  than  either  the  few  brilliant  years 
of  office  or  those  spent  as  a  teacher  in  the  com- 
parative seclusion  of  Lu.  For  one  thing,  it  could 
not  but  inspire  and  fortify  his  followers  to  ob- 
serve that  the  lofty  principles  which  a  sudden 
accession  to  power  had  failed  to  corrupt,  were 
equally  capable  of  standing  the  test  of  adversity. 
His  serene  and  courageous  bearing  in  many  a 
strange  and  perilous  situation  proved  that  the 
conception  of  a  "  higher  type  of  man  "  was  for 
him  no  empty  ideal,  but  the  worthy  object  of 
practical  endeavour.  It  is  sad,  however,  to  reflect 
that  the  best  years  of  his  life  had  passed  before 
the  call  came  which  resulted  in  his  return.  Had 
it  not  been  so  long  delayed,  he  would  doubtless 
have  thrown  himself  once  more  into  the  arena 
of  public  affairs,  and  begun  rebuilding  the  fabric 

1  Seep.  118. 

2 


18  INTRODUCTION 

of  good  government  which  had  been  so  rudely 
shattered  thirteen  years  before.  His  patience 
would  have  been  equal  to  the  task  ;  but  he  was 
now  an  old  man,  worn  out  by  years  of  travel, 
privation  and  anxiety,  at  a  time  of  life  when  the 
physical  frame  begins  to  demand  a  certain 
measure  of  quiet  and  repose.  Hence,  though  he 
may  be  said  to  have  returned  to  his  native  state 
with  flying  colours,  he  took  no  further  active  part 
in  its  administration,  but  devoted  the  rest  of  his 
life  to  literary  labours  which  have  added  materi- 
ally to  his  fame.  Such  were  the  collecting  and 
editing  of  certain  old  national  ballads  known  to 
us  as  the  Odes,  and  the  penning  of  the  Spring 
and  Autumn  Annals  of  Lu,  which  may  be  regarded 
as  the  first  real  record  of  authentic  facts,  as 
opposed  to  the  mere  string  of  speeches  and 
eulogies  which  we  find  in  the  miscalled  Book  of 
History. 

To  this  closing  period,  too,  are  to  be  referred 
most  of  the  sayings  given  in  the  present  volume. 
These,  together  with  the  invaluable  biography 
by  Ssu-ma  Ch'ien,  which  is  largely  built  upon 
them,  form  the  only  really  reliable  source  of 
information  about  Confucius  and  his  doctrines. 
The  Chinese  title  Lun  Til  may  be  rendered 
"  Conversations  "  or  "  Discussions,"  but  neither 
is  a  very  apt  description  of  the  work,  which 
contains  very  little  discussion  in  the  ordinary 
sense.  It  consists  in  fact  almost  wholly  of 


INTRODUCTION  19 

detached  obiter  dicta,  or  replies  to  questions  put 
by  various  disciples  on  subjects  chiefly  moral  or 
personal.  These  sayings  were  once  supposed  to 
have  been  collected  and  committed  to  writing 
by  the  immediate  disciples  of  Confucius,  but 
Legge  has  shown  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that 
they  were  transmitted  orally  at  first,  and  did  not 
take  the  form  in  which  we  have  them  until  at 
least  two  generations  after  the  Master's  death. 
Nor  must  it  be  imagined  that  they  represent  the 
ipsissima  verba  of  Confucius.  No  man  could 
have  made  offhand  remarks  in  such  a  crisp, 
concise  and  epigrammatic  style.  A  translation, 
in  which  brevity  has  again  and  again  to  be 
sacrificed  to  smoothness  and  lucidity,  hardly 
allows  the  European  reader  to  form  any  idea  of 
the  glittering  compactness  of  these  sayings  in  the 
original.  So  far  from  having  been  uttered  im- 
promptu, they  appear  to  have  been  repeatedly 
ground  and  polished,  and  shorn  of  every  redun- 
dancy, until  they  shone  like  diamonds  fresh  from 
the  hands  of  the  cutter.  At  the  same  time,  as 
expressing  the  essence  of  what  the  Master  thought 
and  the  substance  of  what  he  said,  it  is  with  good 
reason  that  they  are  to  be  found  inscribed  on 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  scrolls  and  tablets  in 
every  corner  of  the  Empire.  These  gems,  how- 
ever, are  unsorted.  As  in  most  Chinese  philo- 
sophical works,  there  is  very  little  attempt  at 
orderly  arrangement ;  even  such  a  rough  classi- 


20  INTRODUCTION 

fication  as  will  be  found  in  this  volume  is  absent. 
This  is  not  necessarily  to  be  regarded  as  a  defect  : 
jewels  jumbled  in  a  heap  often  have  a  charm 
which  they  lack  when  strung  symmetrically  into 
a  necklace.  The  only  danger  is  that  unwary 
readers,  looking  in  vain  for  a  beginning,  a  middle 
and  an  end,  may  jump  to  the  conclusion  that 
Confucius  himself  was  merely  a  master  of  casual 
apophthegms  ;  they  may  very  easily  miss  the 
connecting  principles  which  serve  to  bind  the 
Confucian  teachings  into  one  rounded  system. 
Even  the  disciples  seem  to  have  been  in  danger 
of  overlooking  the  whole  in  their  admiration  of 
the  parts.  It  needed  the  penetration  of  Tseng 
Tzu  to  tell  them  that  the  Master's  Way  was, 
after  all,  simple  in  its  diversity,  and  might  be 
summed  up  in  two  words  :  duty  to  oneself  and 
charity  to  one's  neighbour.  Unhappily,  owing 
to  the  misinterpretation  of  these  important 
words,  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  the  Confucian 
doctrine  has  long  passed  unrecognised. 

For  what  has  been,  and  is  perhaps  even  now, 
the  prevailing  conception  of  Confucius  in  the 
West  ?  Does  not  the  name  conjure  up  in  most 
minds  the  figure  of  a  highly  starched  philosopher, 
dry,  formal,  pedantic,  almost  inhuman  in  the 
unimpeachable  correctness  of  his  personal  con- 
duct, rigid  and  precise  in  his  notions  of  ceremonial, 
admirable  no  doubt  in  his  sentiments,  but  always 
more  a  man  of  words  than  of  deeds  ?  He  has 


INTRODUCTION  21 

been  constantly  accused  of  laying  undue  weight 
on  things  external,  of  undervaluing  natural 
impulses  of  the  heart.  "  Propriety,"  says  Legge, 
"  was  a  great  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of 
Confucius.  His  morality  was  the  result  of  the 
balancings  of  his  intellect,  fettered  by  the  de- 
cisions of  men  of  old,  and  not  the  gushings  of  a 
loving  heart,  responsive  to  the  promptings  of 
Heaven,  and  in  sympathy  with  erring  and  feeble 
humanity."  It  is  high  time  that  an  effective 
protest  was  made  against  such  an  amazing 
piece  of  misrepresentation.  With  bitter  truth 
we  may  retort  that  "  propriety  " — that  is,  the 
Chinese  word  li  which  has  been  cruelly  saddled 
with  this  absurd  rendering — has  indeed  been  a 
stumbling-block,  but  a  stumbling-block  not  so 
much  to  Confucius  as  to  Dr.  Legge  himself.  The 
whole  tenor  of  the  Master's  teaching  cries  aloud 
against  such  wilful  and  outrageous  distortion. 
Any  one  who  reads  the  sayings  carefully  will  soon 
discover  that  this  accusation  is  not  only  libellous 
but  grotesque  in  its  remoteness  from  the  truth. 
If  there  is  one  thing  more  than  another  which 
distinguishes  Confucius  from  the  men  of  his  day, 
it  is  the  supreme  importance  which  he  attached 
to  jen,  the  feeling  in  the  heart,  as  the  source  of 
all  right  conduct,  the  stress  which  he  laid  on  the 
internal  as  opposed  to  the  external,  and  even  on 
motives  rather  than  outward  acts,  except  in  so  far 
as  these  might  be  taken  as  an  index  to  character. 


22  INTRODUCTION 

Over  and  over  again  he  gave  proof  of  the  highest 
and  noblest  moral  courage  in  ignoring  the  narrow 
rules  of  conventional  morality  and  etiquette 
when  these  conflicted  with  good  feeling  and 
common  sense,  and  setting  up  in  their  stead  the 
grand  rule  of  conscience  which,  by  asserting  the 
right  of  each  individual  to  judge  such  matters 
for  himself,  pushed  liberty  to  a  point  which  was 
quite  beyond  the  comprehension  of  his  age.  So 
far  from  being  "  fettered  by  the  decisions  of  men 
of  old,"  it  was  his  hand  that  valiantly  essayed  to 
strike  the  fetters  of  bigotry  and  prejudice  from 
the  necks  of  his  countrymen.  But  whilst  de- 
clining to  be  bound  by  the  ideas  and  the  standards 
of  others,  he  was  not  blind  to  the  danger  of  liberty 
degenerating  into  license.  The  new  fetters,  there- 
fore, that  he  forged  for  mankind  were  those  of 
an  iron  self-discipline  and  self-control,  unaccom- 
panied, however,  by  anything  in  the  shape  of 
bodily  mortification,  a  practice  which  he  knew 
to  be  at  once  more  showy  and  less  troublesome 
than  the  discipline  of  the  mind. 

Another  charge  not  infrequently  heard  is  one 
of  a  certain  repellent  coldness  of  temperament 
and  stiffness  of  demeanour.  The  warrant  for 
such  a  statement  is  not  so  readily  forthcoming, 
unless  indeed  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  stiff  and 
repellent  style  which  characterises  some  trans- 
lations of  his  sayings.  In  the  Analects  we  are 
told  the  exact  opposite  of  this.  TheJMaster,  we 


INTRODUCTION  23 

read  there,  was  uniformly  cheerful  in  demeanour, 
and  he  evidently  unbent  to  quite  an  unusual 
extent  with  his  disciples,  considering  the  respect 
and  deference  universally  shown  to  age  and 
learning  in  China.  Is  it  at  all  conceivable  that 
a  man  of  cold  and  unlovable  temper  should  have 
attracted  round  him  hundreds  of  disciples,  with 
many  of  whom  he  was  on  terms  of  most  intimate 
intercourse,  meeting  them  not  only  in  the  lecture- 
room,  as  modern  professors  meet  their  classes, 
but  living  with  them,  eating,  drinking,  sleeping 
and  conversing  with  them,  until  all  their  idiosyn- 
crasies, good  or  bad,  were  better  known  to  him 
than  to  their  own  parents  ?  Is  it  explicable, 
except  on  the  ground  of  deep  personal  affection, 
that  he  should  have  been  followed  into  exile  by 
a  faithful  band  of  disciples,  not  one  of  whom  is 
known  ever  to  have  deserted  or  turned  against 
him  ?  Is  coldness  to  be  predicated  of  the  man 
who  in  his  old  age,  for  once  losing  something  of 
his  habitual  self-control,  wept  passionately  for 
the  death  of  his  dearly  loved  disciple  Yen  Hui, 
and  would  not  be  comforted  ? 

But  it  has  been  reserved  for  the  latest  English 
translator  of  the  Analects,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jennings, 
to  level  some  of  the  worst  charges  at  his  head. 
To  begin  with,  he  approvingly  quotes,  as  Legge's 
final  opinion  on  Confucius,  words  occurring  in 
the  earliest  edition  of  the  Chinese  Classics  to  the 
effect  that  he  is  "  unable  to  regard  him  as  a  great 


24  INTRODUCTION 

man,"  quite  heedless  of  the  fact  that  the  following 
stands  in  the  edition  of  1893  (two  years  before 
his  own  translation  appeared)  :  "  But  I  must 
now  leave  the  sage.  I  hope  I  have  not  done  him 
injustice  ;  the  more  I  have  studied  his  character 
and  opinions,  the  more  highly  have  I  come  to 
regard  him.  He  was  a  very  great  man,  and  his 
influence  has  been  on  the  whole  a  great  benefit 
to  the  Chinese,  while  his  teachings  suggest  im- 
portant lessons  to  ourselves  who  profess  to  belong 
to  the  school  of  Christ."  This  summing-up, 
though  certainly  unexpected  in  view  of  much 
that  has  gone  before,  does  partly  atone  for  the 
unjust  strictures  which  Dr.  Legge  felt  it  necessary 
to  pass  on  Confucius  at  an  earlier  period,  though 
it  may  require  many  years  entirely  to  obliterate 
their  effect.  What  I  wish  to  emphasise  at  present, 
however,  is  the  unfairness  of  quoting  an  early 
and  presumably  crude  and  ill-considered  opinion 
in  preference  to  the  latest  and  matures t  judgment 
of  an  authority  who  at  no  time  can  be  said  to 
err  on  the  side  of  over-partiality  for  his  subject. 
But  this  is  not  all.  For  after  pointing  out, 
truly  enough,  that  Confucius  cannot  well  be 
blamed  for  "  giving  no  impulse  to  religion," 
inasmuch  as  he  never  pretended  to  make  this 
his  aim,  Mr.  Jennings  goes  on  to  pick  some 
holes  on  his  own  account,  and  incontinently  falls 
into  exactly  the  same  error  that  he  had  previously 
rebuked  in  Dr.  Legge.  "  In  his  reserve  about 


INTRODUCTION  25 

great  and  important  matters,  while  professing 
to  teach  men,  he  is  perhaps  most  to  blame, 
and  in  his  holding  back  what  was  best  in  the 
religion  of  the  ancients."  What  these  great 
and  important  matters  were,  is  not  made  very 
clear,  but  if,  as  seems  probable,  the  phrase  is 
simply  another  way  of  referring  to  "  the  religion 
of  the  ancients,"  it  can  only  be  repeated  that 
religion  was  a  subject  which  he  disliked  to  discuss 
and  certainly  did  not  profess  to  teach,  as  is 
plainly  indicated  in  the  Analects.  And  the  reason 
why  he  refrained  from  descanting  on  such  matters 
was  that,  knowing  nothing  of  them  himself, 
he  felt  that  he  would  have  been  guilty  of  hypocrisy 
and  fraud  had  he  made  a  show  of  instructing 
others  therein.  Would  that  a  like  candour  dis- 
tinguished some  of  our  own  professed  teachers 
of  religion  ! 

The  last  accusation  against  Confucius  is  the 
most  reckless  of  all.  "  There  is,"  according 
to  Mr.  Jennings,  "  a  certain  selfishness  in  his 
teaching,  which  had  the  effect  of  making  those 
who  came  under  his  influence  soon  feel  them- 
selves great  and  self-satisfied."  As  only  the 
feeblest  of  evidence  is  produced  to  support  this 
wild  statement,  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  con- 
sider it  at  any  length,  though  we  may  ask  in 
passing  whether  Yen  Hui,  the  disciple  who 
profited  most  from  his  Master's  teaching  and 
best  exemplified  it,  is  depicted  as  exhibiting 


26  INTRODUCTION 

this  alleged  self-satisfaction  in  a  peculiarly 
noticeable  degree.  For  an  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion the  reader  may  be  referred  to  Tseng  Tzu's 
remarks  on  p.  128. 

The  truth  is,  though  missionaries  and  other 
zealots  have  long  attempted  to  obscure  the  fact, 
that  the  moral  teaching  of  Confucius  is  absolutely 
the  purest  and  least  open  to  the  charge  of  selfish- 
ness of  any  in  the  world.  Its  principles  are  neither 
utilitarian  on  the  one  hand  nor  religious  on  the  other, 
that  is  to  say,  it  is  not  based  on  the  expectation 
of  profit  or  happiness  to  be  gained  either  in  this 
world  or  in  the  next  (though  Confucius  doubt- 
less believed  that  well-being  would  as  a  general 
rule  accompany  virtuous  conduct).  "  Virtue  for 
virtue's  sake  "  is  the  maxim  which,  if  not  enunci- 
ated by  him  in  so  many  words,  was  evidently 
the  corner-stone  of  his  ethics  and  the  mainspring 
of j  his  own  career.  Not  that  he  would  have 
quite  understood  the  modern  formula,  or  that 
the  idea  of  virtue  being  practised  for  anything 
but  its  own  sake  would  ever  have  occurred  to 
his  mind.  Virtue  resting  on  anything  but  its 
own  basis  would  not  have  seemed  to  him  virtue 
in  the  true  sense  at  all,  but  simply  another  name 
for  prudence,  foresight,  or  cunning.  Yet  material 
advantage,  disguised  as  much  as  you  will,  but 
still  material  advantage  in  one  form  orjanother, 
is  what  impels  most  men  to  espouse  any  particular 
form  of  religion.  Hence  it  is  nothing  less  than 


INTRODUCTION  27 

a  standing  miracle  that  Confucianism,  which 
makes  no  promise  of  blessings  to  be  enjoyed  in 
this  life  or  the  next,  should  have  succeeded  without 
the  adjunct  of  other  supernatural  elements  than 
that  of  ancestor-worship.  Even  this  was  ac- 
cepted by  Confucius  as  a  harmless  prevailing 
custom  rather  than  enjoined  by  him  as  an  essential 
part  of  his  doctrine.  Unlike  Christianity  and  Ma- 
hometanism,  the  Way  preached  by  the  Chinese 
sage  knows  neither  the  sanction  of  punishment 
nor  the  stimulus  of  reward  in  an  after-life.  Even 
Buddhism  holds  out  the  hope  of  Nirvana  to  the 
pure  of  heart,  and  preaches  the  long  torment 
of  successive  rebirths  to  those  who  fall  short 
of  perfect  goodness.  No  great  religion  is  devoid 
of  elevated  precepts,  or  has  ever  failed  to  mould 
numbers  of  beautiful  characters  to  attest  the 
presence  of  something  good  and  great  within 
it.  But  in  every  case  the  element  of  supernatural- 
ism,  which  is  of  course  inseparable  from  a  religion 
properly  so  called,  introduces  a  new  motive  for 
men's  actions  and  makes  it  no  longer  possible 
for  virtue  to  be  followed  purely  for  its  own  sake, 
without  thought  of  a  hereafter.  Thus,  if  we 
assent  to  Comte's  famous  law  of  the  Three 
States,  Confucianism  really  represents  a  more 
advanced  stage  of  civilisation  than  biblical 
Christianity.  Indeed,  as  Mr.  Carey  Hall  has 
recently  pointed  out  in  an  article  on  the  subject, 
Confucius  may  be  regarded  as  the  true  fore- 


28  INTRODUCTION 

runner   of    Comte   in    his    positivist    mode    of 
thought. 

His  whole  system  is  based  on  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  the  knowledge  of  human  nature. 
The  instincts  of  man  are  social  and  therefore 
fundamentally  good,  while  egoism  is  at  bottom 
an  artificial  product  and  evil.  Hence  the  insist- 
ence on  altruism  which  we  find  in  the  sayings 
of  Confucius,  the  injunction  to  "  act  socially," 
to  live  for  others  in  living  for  oneself.  The 
most  important  word  in  the  Confucian  vocabulary 
is  jen,  which  in  the  following  extracts  is  trans- 
lated "  virtue  "  only  for  want  of  a  better  term. 
Our  English  word  "  virtue  "  has  so  many  different 
shades  of  meaning  and  is  withal  so  vague,  that  in 
using  it,  the  idea  of  altruism  is  often  hardly 
present  to  our  mind.  But  in  jen  the  implication 
of  "  social  good  "  emerges  much  more  distinctly. 
Its  connotation  has  no  doubt  extended  gradually 
until  it  seems  often  to  be  rather  a  compendium 
of  all  goodness  than  any  one  virtue  in  particular. 
But  this  development  only  means  that  the  word 
is  following  in  the  track  of  the  thing  itself.  For 
let  a  man  be  but  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
altruistic  spirit,  and  he  may  be  termed  "  good  " 
without  qualification,  since  all  other  virtues 
tend  to  flow  from  unselfishness. 

The  Confucian  theory  of  man's  social  obliga- 
tions rests  first  and  foremost  on  the  fact  that  he 
forms  part  of  a  great  social  machine — an  aggre- 


INTRODUCTION  29 

gation  of  units,  each  of  which  is  called  a  family. 
The  family,  in  Chinese  eyes,  is  a  microcosm  of 
the  Empire,  or  rather,  since  the  family  is  chrono- 
logically prior  to  the  State,  it  is  the  pattern  on 
which  the  greater  organism  has  moulded  itself. 
The  feudal  system  under  which  Confucius  lived 
naturally  accentuated  the  likeness.  The  Emperor 
had,  in  theory  at  least,  paternal  authority  over 
his  feudal  princes,  who  in  turn,  standing  to  one 
another  in  the  relation  of  elder  and  younger 
brothers,  were  regarded  as  the  fathers  of  their 
respective  peoples.  Now,  the  way  to  ensure  that 
a  machine  as  a  whole  may  run  smoothly  and  well, 
is  to  see  that  each  part  shall  fulfil  its  own  function 
in  proper  subordination  to  the  rest.  How  is 
this  result  achieved  in  the  family  ?  Obviously 
through  the  controlling  will  of  the  father,  who 
has  supreme  authority  over  all  the  other  members. 
But  this  authority  is  not  by  any  means  the  mere 
brute  force  of  a  tyrant.  It  is  based  firstly  on 
the  natural  order  of  things,  whereby  the  father 
is  clearly  intended  to  be  the  protector  of  his 
children ;  and  secondly,  as  a  consequence  of 
this,  on  the  love  and  respect  which  will  normally 
spring  up  in  the  minds  of  the  children  for  their 
protector.  Such  is  the  genesis  of  filial  piety, 
which  plays  so  large  a  part  in  Chinese  ethics. 
It  is  quite  untrue,  however,  to  say  with  Mr. 
Jennings,  that  no  corresponding  parental  duties 
are  recognised  by  Confucius,  as  the  following 


30  INTRODUCTION 

anecdote  may  serve  to  show.  During  the  sage's 
short  period  of  office  as  Minister  of  Crime,  a 
father  came  to  him  bringing  some  serious  charge 
against  his  son.  Confucius  kept  them  both  in 
prison  for  three  months,  without  making  any 
difference  in  favour  of  the  father,  and  then  let 
them  go.  The  Minister  Chi  Huan  remonstrated 
with  him  for  this,  and  reminded  him  of  his  saying, 
that  filial  duty  was  the  first  thing  to  be  insisted 
on.  "  What  hinders  you  now  from  putting 
this  unfilial  son  to  death  as  an  example  to  all 
the  people  ?  "  Confucius'  reply  was,  that  the 
father  had  never  taught  his  son  to  be  filial,  and 
that  therefore  the  guilt  really  rested  with  him. 
For  the  harmonious  working  of  a  family, 
then,  we  need  respect  for  authority  on  one  side, 
and  self-sacrifice  on  the  other.  The  father's 
object  must  be  entirely  altruistic — the  good  of  his 
family.  Then  only  will  he  be  doing  his  duty 
as  a  father,  just  as  a  son  is  not  doing  his  duty 
unless  he  shows  honour  and  obedience  to  his 
parents.  The  all-important  element  which  makes 
possible  the  working  of  the  family  machine,  the 
lubricating  oil  that  eases  the  bearings,  is  not 
merely  filial  piety  without  any  corresponding 
feeling  on  the  part  of  the  parent,  but  rather  a 
certain  subtle  principle  of  harmony  and  self- 
control  permeating  every  member  of  the  family 
group,  which  restrains  egoistic  propensities  and 
promotes  the  common  good.  This  is  the  Chinese 


INTRODUCTION  31 

term  li,  which  in  this  sense  of  a  quality  of  the  soul 
is  hardly  translatable  by  any  single  word  or 
combination  of  words,  but  is  certainly  not  to 
be  rendered  by  any  such  atrocious  phrase  as 
"  the  rules  of  propriety."  l 

Now  Confucius  saw  that  the  same  general 
principles  which  govern  the  family  are  applicable 
also  to  that  greatest  of  families,  the  State.  Here 
we  have  the  Emperor,  in  whose  hands  the  supreme 
authority  must  lie,  exercising  functions  exactly 
analogous  to  those  of  the  father  of  a  family. 
But  if  his  is  the  supreme  authority,  his  must 
also  be  the  supreme  responsibility.  Veneration 
and  respect  are  his  due,  but  only  because  he 
identifies  himself  with  the  good  of  the  people. 
In  public  affairs,  just  as  in  the  home,  there  must 
be  that  same  principle  of  harmony  to  regulate 
the  relations  of  governor  and  governed,  otherwise 
the  machine  will  not  work.  There  must  be  li 
here  as  well,  but  as  it  is  not  possible  for  the 
sovereign  to  maintain  with  his  subjects  the  per- 
sonal intimacy  which  unites  a  father  and  his 
sons,  it  is  necessary  to  fall  back  upon  symbols,  and 
to  give  outward  and  visible  expression  to  the 
inward  sentiments  of  loyalty  and  respect  which 
should  animate  the  breast  of  each  member  of 
the  nation.  These  symbols  are  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  which  Confucius  was  considered 
such  a  past-master.  He  saw  indeed  their  full 

1  See  note  on  p.  60. 


32  INTRODUCTION 

importance  as  symbols,  but  he  also  knew  that, 
divorced  from  the  inward  feeling,  they  were  mean- 
ingless and  without  value.  In  this  way  it  is 
easy  to  see  how  the  word  li,  as  a  human  attribute, 
acquired  its  various  shades  of  meaning,  from 
the  harmony  in  the  soul  which  prompts  action  in 
accordance  with  true  natural  instincts,  down  to 
ordinary  politeness  and  good  manners — also 
an  indispensable  lubricant  in  the  lesser  dealings 
of  life  between  man  and  man. 

It  was  in  the  family  again  that  Confucius 
found  a  natural  force  at  work  which  he  thought 
might  be  utilised  as  an  immense  incentive  to 
virtue.  This  was  the  universal  human  proneness 
to  imitation.  Knowing  that  personal  example 
is  the  most  effective  way  in  which  a  father  can 
teach  his  sons  what  is  right,  he  unhesitatingly 
attributed  the  same  powerful  influence  to  the 
personal  conduct  of  the  sovereign,  and  went  so 
far  as  to  declare  that  if  the  ruler  was  personally 
upright,  his  subjects  would  do  their  duty  un- 
bidden ;  if  he  was  not  upright,  they  would  not 
obey,  whatever  his  bidding.  "  The  virtue  of 
the  prince,"  he  said,  "  is  like  unto  wind  ;  that 
of  the  people,  like  unto  grass.  For  it  is  the 
nature  of  grass  to  bend  when  the  wind  blows 
upon  it."  It  must  be  admitted  that  Confucius 
has  in  this  particular  somewhat  overshot  the 
mark  and  formed  too  sanguine  an  estimate  of  the 
force  of  example.  It  would  be  unfair,  however, 


INTRODUCTION  33 

to  base  our  argument  on  the  analogy  of  modern 
democratic  states,  where  the  controlling  power 
is  split  up  into  several  branches,  and  the  con- 
spicuousness  of  the  monarch  is  much  diminished. 
Not  that  even  the  constitutional  sovereign  of 
to-day  may  not  wield  a  very  decided  influence 
in  morals.  But  this  influence  was  much  greater 
while  the  king  retained  full  despotic  power, 
and  greatest  of  all  in  feudal  times,  when  the 
successive  gradations  of  rank  and  the  nice  ar- 
rangement of  a  hierarchy  of  officials,  each  ac- 
countable to  the  one  above  him,  were  specially 
designed  to  convey  and  filter  it  among  all  classes 
of  the  community.  Had  Confucius  been  able  to 
find  a  prince  who  would  have  acted  consistently 
on  Confucian  principles,  the  results  might  have 
been  almost  as  grand  as  he  anticipated.  The 
experiment  was  tried,  we  must  remember,  on  a 
small  scale,  when  Confucius  himself  became 
governor  of  a  town  in  the  State  of  Lu.  And 
although  one  must  be  chary  of  accepting  all  the 
extravagant  tales  which  gathered  round  his 
brief  official  career,  it  seems  indisputable  that 
this  political  theory,  unlike  many  others,  proved 
reasonably  successful  in  actual  practice. 

Of  course  the  weak  point  is  that  every  king 
cannot  be  a  Confucius,  and  unless  some  practical 
method  can  be  devised  of  electing  rulers  on  the 
ground  of  merit  alone,  it  is  impossible  to  ensure 
that  their  conduct  shall  serve  as  a  pattern  to  their 

3 


34  INTRODUCTION 

people.  "  Rotten  wood  cannot  be  carved,"  the 
Master  himself  once  remarked,  and  he  found 
bitter  confirmation  of  his  saying  in  Duke  Ting  of 
Lu.  Nothing  could  ever  have  been  made  out  of 
such  utterly  weak  and  worthless  material.  And 
he  afterwards  spent  thirteen  years  of  his  life  in 
the  fruitless  search  for  a  sovereign  who  would 
correspond  even  faintly  to  his  ideal.  Such  un- 
swerving devotion  to  the  abstract  cause  of  right 
and  justice  and  good  government  cannot  but 
puzzle  those  who  have  been  taught  to  regard 
Confucius  as  the  very  type  and  embodiment  of 
materialistic  wisdom  and  practical  utilitarianism. 
But  in  truth,  strange  though  it  may  sound,  he 
was  a  great  idealist  who  gained  his  hold  on  his 
countrymen  by  virtue  rather  of  his  noble 
imaginings  and  lofty  aspirations  than  of  any 
immediate  results  or  tangible  achievements. 
By  the  men  of  his  own  day  he  was  more  often 
than  not  considered  a  charlatan  and  an  impostor. 
It  is  remarkable  that  even  the  two  Taoist 
recluses  and  the  eccentric  Chieh  Yii  (p.  122) 
should  have  condemned  him  as  a  visionary  and 
a  "  crank."  Similar  was  the  impression  he  made 
on  the  gate-keeper  who  asked  a  disciple  if  his 
Master  was  the  man  "  who  was  always  trying  to 
do  what  he  knew  to  be  impossible."  This  playful 
sarcasm  is  really  the  best  commentary  on  his 
career,  and  one  that  pays  him  unintentionally 
the  greatest  honour.  Though  often  disheartened 


INTRODUCTION  35 

by  the  long  and  bitter  struggle  against  adverse 
circumstance  and  the  powers  of  evil,  he  never 
gave  over  in  disgust.  Therein  lay  his  greatness. 
"  Wer  immer  strebend  sich  bemiiht,  Den  konnen 
wir  erlosen,"  sing  the  angels  in  Faust,  and  no 
man  ever  toiled  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-crea- 
tures with  greater  perseverance  or  with  less 
apparent  prospect  of  success.  In  this,  the  truest 
sense,  he  could  say  that  his  whole  life  had  been 
a  prayer  (p.  87).  He  succeeded  in  that  he 
seemed  to  fail.  He  never  achieved  the  Utopian 
object  of  reforming  all  mankind  by  means  of  a 
wise  and  good  sovereign.  On  the  contrary,  after 
his  death  confusion  grew  worse  confounded,  and 
the  din  of  arms  rose  to  a  pitch  from  which  it  did 
not  subside  until  after  the  momentous  revolution 
which  swept  away  the  Chou  dynasty  and  estab- 
lished a  new  order  of  things  in  China.  In  a 
radically  individualistic  and  liberty-loving  country 
like  China,  the  feudal  system  was  bound  sooner 
or  later  to  perish,  even  as  it  perished  in  a  later 
day  among  ourselves.  But  throughout  the 
anarchy  of  that  terrible  period,  the  light  kindled 
by  Confucius  burned  steadily  and  prepared  men's 
minds  for  better  things.  His  ideal  of  govern- 
ment was  not  forgotten,  his  sayings  were  trea- 
sured like  gold  in  the  minds  of  the  people.  Above 
all,  his  own  example  shone  like  a  glorious  beacon, 
darting  its  rays  through  the  night  of  misery  and 
oppression  and  civil  strife  which  in  his  lifetime 


36  INTRODUCTION 

he  had  striven  so  earnestly  to  remove.  And  so 
it  came  about  that  his  belief  in  the  political  value 
of  personal  goodness  was  in  some  sort  justified 
after  all ;  for  the  great  and  inspiriting  pattern 
which  he  sought  in  vain  among  the  princes  of  his 
time  was  to  be  afforded  in  the  end  by  no  other 
than  himself — the  "  throneless  king,"  who  is  for 
ever  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen. 
It  is  absurd,  then,  to  speak  of  his  life  as  a  failure. 
Measured  by  results — the  almost  incalculably 
great  and  far-reaching  consequences  which  fol- 
lowed tardily  but  irresistibly  after  he  was  gone — 
his  life  was  one  of  the  most  successful  ever  lived 
by  man.  Three  others,  and  only  three,  are  com- 
parable to  it  in  world-wide  influence  :  Gautama's 
self-sacrificing  sojourn  among  men,  the  stormy 
career  of  the  Arab  Prophet,  and  the  "  sinless 
years  "  which  found  their  close  on  Golgotha. 


LIST   OF   THE   PRINCIPAL   DISCIPLES 


The  proper  names  occurring  in  the  Analects 
present  some  difficulty  to  the  European  reader, 
as  one  and  the  same  person  is  often  referred  to 
in  several  different  ways — by  his  surname  and 
personal  name,  by  his  "  style,"  or  by  a  com- 
bination of  the  two,  while  among  intimates  the 
personal  name  only  is  employed.  Mr.  Ku  has 
on  this  account  eliminated  almost  all  proper 
names  from  his  translation,  using  a  periphrasis 
instead.  But  by  this  method  one  misses  much 
of  the  characterisation  which  is  such  an  attrac- 
tive feature  of  the  Analects.  I  have  judged  it 
better  to  give  the  names  of  the  principal  disciples 
exactly  as  they  appear  in  the  Chinese,  and  to 
provide  a  table  of  their  various  appellations  for 
easy  reference.  An  asterisk  denotes  the  name 
most  frequently  used. 


SURNAME  AND 
PERSONAL  NAME. 

STYLE. 

MIXED 
APPELLATION. 

YenHui 
MinSun     ) 
(Min  Tzfi)J 

Tzu  Yuan 
Tzfi  Ch'ien 

Yen  Yuan.* 
MinTzu-ch'ien,* 

38      LIST   OF   PRINCIPAL   DISCIPLES 


SURNAME  AND 
PERSONAL  NAME. 

STYLE. 

MIXED 
APPELLATION. 

Jan  Keng 

Po  Niu* 

Jan  Po-niu. 

Jan  Yung 

Chung  Kung* 

Jan  Ch'iu 

Tzu  Yu 

Jan  Yu.* 

Chung  Yu 

Tzu  Lu*) 

Chi  Lu    / 

Tsai  Yii 

TzuWo 

Tsai  Wo  * 

Tuan-mu  Tz'ti 

Tzu  Kung* 

Yen  Yen 

Tzu  Yu* 

Yen  Yu. 

Pu  Shang 

Tzu  Hsia* 

Chuan-sun  Shih 

Tzu  Chang* 

Tseng  Shen    | 
(Tseng  Tzii*)/ 

Tzu  Yu 

Fan  Hsu 

Tzu  Ch'ih 

Fan  Ch'ih.* 

Ssu-ma  Keng 

Tzti  Niu 

Ssii-ma  Niu.* 

Kung-hsi  Ch'ih 

Tzu  Hua 

Kung-hsi  Hua.* 

Yu  Jo        ) 
(Yu  Tzu*)  ) 

Tzft  Jo 

GOVERNMENT   AND   PUBLIC  AFFAIRS 

The  Master  said  :  In  ruling  a  country  of  a 
thousand  chariots  there  should  be  scrupulous 
attention  to  business,  honesty,  economy,  charity, 
and  employment  of  the  people  at  the  proper 

season. 

A  virtuous  ruler  is  like  the  Pole-star,  which 
keeps  its  place,  while  all  the  other  stars  do  homage 
to  it. 

People  despotically  governed  and  kept  in 
order  by  punishments  may  avoid  infraction  of 
the  law,  but  they  will  lose  their  moral  sense. 
People  virtuously  governed  and  kept  in  order  by 
the  inner  law  of  self-control  will  retain  their 
moral  sense,  and  moreover  become  good. 

Duke  Ai  1  asked,  saying  :  What  must  I  do  that 
my  people  may  be  contented  ? — Confucius  re- 
plied :  Promote  the  upright  and  dismiss  all  evil- 
doers, and  the  people  will  be  contented.  Pro- 

1  Ai  was  the  honorary  epithet  of  the  Duke  of  Lu  who 
was  reigning  during  the  last  years  of  Confucius'  life. 


40    GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS 

mote  the  evil-doers  and  dismiss  the  upright,  and 
the  people  will  be  discontented. 

Chi  K'ang  Tzu  *  asked  by  what  means  he  might 
cause  his  people  to  be  respectful  and  loyal,  and 
encourage  them  in  the  path  of  virtue.  The 
Master  replied  :  Conduct  yourself  towards  them 
with  dignity,  and  you  will  earn  their  respect  ;  be 
a  good  son  and  a  kind  prince,  and  you  will  find 
them  loyal ;  promote  the  deserving  and  instruct 
those  who  fall  short,  and  they  will  be  encouraged 
to  follow  the  path  of  virtue. 

Some  one,  addressing  Confucius,  said  :  Why, 
Sir,  do  you  take  no  part  in  the  government  ? — The 
Master  replied  :  What  does  the  Book  of  History 
say  about  filial  piety  ? — Do  your  duty  as  a  son 
and  as  a  brother,  and  these  qualities  will  make 
themselves  felt  in  the  government.  This,  then, 
really  amounts  to  taking  part  in  the  government. 
Holding  office  need  not  be  considered  essential. 

The  people  can  be  made  to  follow  a  certain 
path,  but  they  cannot  be  made  to  know  the 
reason  why. 

Tzu  Kung  asked  for  a  definition  of  good  govern- 
ment. The  Master  replied  :  It  consists  in  pro- 
viding enough  food  to  eat,  in  keeping  enough 

1  Chi  K'ang  Tzu  succeeded  to  the  headship  of  the  great 
Chi  family  in  491,  when  Chi  Huan  died,  by  whom  he  was 
advised  to  recall  Confucius  from  his  long  wanderings.  The 
sage,  however,  did  not  return  until  eight  years  later. 


^GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS     41 

soldiers  to  guard  the  State,  and  in  winning  the 
confidence  of  the  people. — And  if  one  of  these 
three  things  had  to  be  sacrificed,  which  should 
go  first  ? — The  Master  replied  :  Sacrifice  the 
soldiers. — And  if  of  the  two  remaining  things  one 
had  to  be  sacrificed,  which  should  it  be  ? — The 
Master  said  :  Let  it  be  the  food.  From  the 
beginning,  men  have  always  had  to  die.  But 
without  the  confidence  of  the  people  no  govern- 
ment can  stand  at  all. 

Ching,  Duke  of  the  Ch'i  State,  questioned 
Confucius  on  the  art  of  government.  Confucius 
replied  :  Let  the  sovereign  do  his  duty  as  a 
sovereign,  the  subject  his  duty  as  a  subject,  the 
father  his  duty  as  a  father,  and  the  son  his  duty 
as  a  son. — A  good  answer  !  said  the  Duke  ;  for 
unless  sovereign  and  subject,  father  and  son  do 
their  respective  duties,  however  much  grain  there 
may  be  in  the  land,  I  could  obtain  none  to  eat. 

Tzu  Chang  put  a  question  about  the  art  of 
governing.  The  Master  said  :  Devote  yourself 
patiently  to  the  theory,  and  conscientiously  to  the 
practice,  of  government. 

Chi  K'ang  Tzu  asked  Confucius  for  advice  on 
the  subject  of  government.  Confucius  replied  : 
To  govern  is  to  keep  straight.1  If  you,  Sir,  lead 

1  The  point  of  the  original  lies  partly  in  the  fact  that  the 
Chinese  words  for  "  govern  "  and  "  straight  "  are  similar 
in  form  and  identical  in  sound. 


42    GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS 

the  people  straight,  which  of  your  subjects  will 
venture  to  fall  out  of  line  ? 

Chi  K'ang  Tzu,  being  vexed  by  robbers,  asked 
Confucius  for  his  advice.  Confucius  replied, 
saying  :  If  you,  sir,  can  check  your  own  cupidity, 
there  will  be  no  stealing,  even  though  rewards 
should  be  offered  for  theft. 

Chi  K'ang  Tzu  questioned  Confucius  on  a 
point  of  government,  saying  :  Ought  not  I  to 
cut  off  the  lawless  in  order  to  establish  law  and 
order  ?  What  do  you  think  ? — Confucius  re- 
plied :  Sir,  what  need  is  there  of  the  death 
penalty  in  your  system  of  government  ?  If  you 
showed  a  sincere  desire  to  be  good,  your  people 
would  likewise  be  good.  The  virtue  of  the  prince 
is  like  unto  wind ;  that  of  the  people,  like  unto 
grass.  For  it  is  the  nature  of  grass  to  bend  when 
the  wind  blows  upon  it. 

Tzu  Lu  asked  for  a  hint  on  the  art  of  governing. 
The  Master  replied  :  Take  the  lead  and  set  the 
example  of  diligent  toil. — Asked  for  a  further 
hint,  he  said  :  Be  patient  and  untiring. 

Chung  Kung,  being  Prime  Minister  to  the  head 
of  the  Chi  clan,  asked  for  advice  on  governing. 
The  Master  said  :  Make  a  point  of  employing 
your  subordinates,  overlook  trifling  mistakes, 
raise  to  office  worthy  and  able  men. — But, 
said  Chung  Kung,  how  am  I  to  discover  these 


GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS    43 

worthy  men  and  single  them  out  for  promotion  ? — 
Promote  those  that  you  know,  was  the  reply. 
As  for  those  that  you  do  not  know,  will  not  their 
claims  be  brought  before  you  by  others  ? 

Tzu  Lu  said  :  The  Prince  of  Wei  is  waiting, 
Sir,  for  you  to  take  up  the  reins  of  government. 
Pray  what  is  the  first  reform  you  would  intro- 
duce ? — The  Master  replied  :  I  would  begin  by 
defining  terms  and  making  them  exact.1 — Oh, 
indeed  !  exclaimed  Tzu  Lu.  But  how  can  you 
possibly  put  tilings  straight  by  such  a  circuitous 
route  ? — The  Master  said  :  How  unmannerly 
you  are,  Yu  !  In  matters  which  he  does  not 
understand,  the  wise  man  will  always  reserve 
his  judgment.  If  terms  are  not  correctly  defined, 
words  will  not  harmonise  with  things.  If  words 

1  The  hidden  meaning  of  this  saying  is  made  clear  by  the 
context  to  be  found  in  Ss>;-ma  Ch'ien's  biography  of  Con- 
fucius. The  Prince  of  Wei  at  this  time  was  the  young  man 
mentioned  on  p.  128  as  holding  the  throne  against  his  own 
father.  By  so  doing  he  had  in  some  sort  inverted  the  relation- 
ship which  should  have  subsisted  between  them,  and  each 
was  in  a  false  position,  the  father  being  deprived  of  his  proper 
parental  dignity,  and  the  son  no  longer  "  doing  his  duty  as 
a  son  "  (see  p.  41).  Confucius  then  is  administering  a  veiled 
rebuke  to  the  young  ruler,  for  in  saying  that  the  first  reform 
necessary  is  the  correct  definition  of  names,  he  implies  in 
effect  that  the  terms  "  father  "  and  "  son,"  among  others, 
should  be  made  to  resume  their  proper  significance.  An 
alternative  rendering  of  cfu>ng  ming  as  "  rectification  of  the 
written  character,"  though  backed  by  the  great  authority 
of  M.  Chavannes,  can  only  be  described  as  feeble  and  far- 
fetched, and  has  been  ably  confuted  by  Herr  Franke  in  the 
Toung  Poo  for  July,  1906, 


44    GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS 

do  not  harmonise  with  things,  public  business 
will  remain  undone.  If  public  business  remains 
undone,  order  and  harmony  will  not  flourish. 
If  order  and  harmony  do  not  flourish,  law  and 
justice  will  not  attain  their  ends.  If  law  and 
justice  do  not  attain  their  ends,  the  people  will 
be  unable  to  move  hand  or  foot.  The  wise  man, 
therefore,  frames  his  definitions  to  regulate  his 
speech,  and  his  speech  to  regulate  his  actions. 
He  is  never  reckless  in  his  choice  of  words. 

Fan  Ch'ih  asked  to  be  taught  the  art  of 
husbandry.  The  Master  said  :  Any  farmer  can 
teach  you  that  better  than  I  can.  He  then 
asked  to  be  taught  gardening.  The  Master  said  : 
Any  gardener  will  teach  you  that  better  than  I 
can.  Fan  Ch'ih  having  gone  out,  the  Master 
said  :  What  a  small-minded  man  is  Fan  Hsu  ! 
If  the  ruler  is  addicted  to  modesty  and  self- 
control,  his  people  will  not  permit  themselves 
to  be  irreverent.  If  the  ruler  loves  justice  and 
duty,  his  people  will  not  venture  to  be  unruly. 
If  the  ruler  loves  sincerity  and  good  faith,  the 
people  will  not  be  slow  to  respond.  Such  being 
his  qualities,  the  people  will  flock  to  him  from  all 
quarters,  with  their  babes  strapped  to  their 
backs.  What  need  for  him  to  know  the  art 
of  husbandry  ?  1 

1  Confucius  is  of  course  merely  insisting  on  the  principle 
of  division  of  labour,  and  not  by  any  means  depreciating  the 
V^lue  of  husbandry  or  other  useful  ajts.  It  is  not  the  ruler's 


GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS    45 

The  Master  said  :  If  the  ruler  is  personally 
upright,  his  subjects  will  do  their  duty  unbidden  ; 
if  he  is  not  personally  upright,  they  will  not  obey, 
whatever  his  bidding. 

When  the  Master  went  to  Wei,  Jan  Yu  drove 
his  carriage.  The  Master  said :  What  an  abundant 
population  ! — Jan  Yu  said  :  Now  that  the  people 
are  so  abundant,  what  is  the  next  thing  to  be 
done  ? — Enrich  them,  said  Confucius. — And 
having  enriched  them,  what  then  ? — Teach  them, 
was  the  reply. 

The  Master  said  :  If  a  country  had  none  but 
good  rulers  for  a  hundred  years,  crime  might  be 
stamped  out  and  the  death-penalty  abolished. 
How  true  this  saying  is  ! 

If  a  kingly  sovereign  were  to  appear,  by  the  end 
of  one  generation  natural  goodness  would  prevail. 

If  a  man  can  reform  his  own  heart,  what  should 
hinder  him  from  taking  part  in  government  ? 
But  if  he  cannot  reform  his  own  heart,  what  has 
he  to  do  with  reforming  others  ? 

Duke  Ting  *  asked  if  there  was  a  single  sentence 

business  to  make  himself  proficient  in  these,  because  the  task 
of  governing  and  setting  an  example  to  the  governed  will 
claim  all  his  attention.  Compare  Plato's  disapproval  of 
Tro\virpay/j.o<T6vr),  and  Confucius'  remarks  on  his  own  skill 
in  various  arts  (p.  88). 

1  The  weak  ruler  of  the  Lu  State  (510-494  B.C.),  who  lost 
the  services  of  Confucius  by  his  infatuation  in  accepting  the 


46    GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS 

by  which  a  country  might  be  made  to  flourish. 
Confucius  answered  :  No  single  sentence  can  bo 
expected  to  have  such  a  virtue  as  this.  Bub 
there  is  the  common  saying :  "  To  be  a  good 
king  is  difficult ;  to  be  a  good  minister  is  not 
easy."  He  who  realises  the  difficulty  of  being 
a  good  king — has  he  not  almost  succeeded  in 
making  his  country  prosper  by  a  single  sentence  ? 
— Is  there  a  single  sentence,  continued  the  Duke, 
by  which  a  country  can  be  ruined  ? — Confucius 
answered  :  No  such  power  can  reside  in  any 
single  sentence.  But  there  is  a  saying  :  "I 
have  no  joy  in  kingly  rule,  I  rejoice  only  because 
none  can  oppose  my  will."  Now  if  the  king's 
will  is  good,  and  none  opposes  it,  all  may  be  well ; 
but  if  it  is  not  good,  and  yet  none  opposes  it, 
has  he  not  almost  succeeded  in  ruining  his  country 
be  a  single  sentence  ? 

The  Duke  of  She  l  asked  about  the  conditions 

insidious  gift  of  eighty  beautiful  singing-girls  from  the  Ch'i 
State.  See  Introduction,  p.  16. 

1  She  was  a  district  of  the  Ch'u  State,  which  Confucius 
visited  in  488  B.C.  The  following  anecdote,  told  by  T'an 
Kung,  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  above  saying.  Travelling 
with  his  disciples,  the  Master  came  across  a  woman  weeping 
and  wailing  beside  a  grave,  and  inquired  the  cause  of  her 
grief.  "  Alas !  "  she  replied.  "  My  father-in-law  was 
killed  here  by  a  tiger  ;  after  that,  my  husband  ;  and  now  my 
son  has  perished  by  the  same  death." — "  But  why,  then,  do 
you  not  go  elsewhere  ?  " — "  The  government  here  is  not 
harsh,"  answered  the  woman. — "  There  !  "  cried  the  Master, 
turning  to  his  disciples,  "  remember  that.  Bad  government 
is  worse  than  a  tiger." 


GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS     47 

of  good  government.  The  Master  said  :  Govern- 
ment is  good  when  it  makes  happy  those  who  live 
under  it  and  attracts  those  who  live  far  away. 

Tzii  Hsia,  when  governor  of  Chii-fu,1  asked 
for  advice  on  government.  The  Master  said  : 
Do  not  try  to  do  things  in  a  hurry.  Do  not  be 
intent  on  small  gains.  What  is  done  quickly 
is  not  done  thoroughly  ;  and  if  small  gains  are 
considered,  great  things  remain  unaccomplished. 

Tzii  Lu  asked  about  the  service  due  to  a  prince. 
The  Master  said :  Use  no  deceit,  but  if  you 
oppose  him,  oppose  him  openly. 

The  Master  said  :  If  the  ruler  cherishes  the 
principle  of  self-control,  the  people  will  be  docile 
to  his  commands.* 

Shun  *  was  one  who  did  nothing,  yet  governed 
well.  For  what,  in  effect,  did  he  do  ?  Religiously 
self-observant,  he  sat  gravely  on  his  throne, 
and  that  is  all.4 

1  A  small  city  in  Lu. 

2  Legge  translates :     "  When  rulers  love  to  observe  the 
rules  of  propriety  (!),  the  people  respond  readily  to  the  calls 
on  them  for  service."     All  the  other  translators  seem  likewise 
to  have  missed  the  point,  which  is  elsewhere  insisted  on  by 
Confucius — that  no  man  is  fit  to  govern  others  who  cannot 
govern   himself.     On  the  meaning  of  li,   see  Introduction, 
pp.  30  seqq.,  and  note  on  p.  60. 

3  A  legendary  Emperor. 

4  This  saying  might  have  come  straight  from  the  mouth 
of  a  Taoist  philosopher.     Nor  is  it  the  only  place   where 
Confucius  seems  to  advocate  quietism.     Cf.  p.  108. 


48    GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS 

In  serving  your  prince,  make  the  actual  servic  e 
your  first  care,  and  only  put  the  emolument  second. 

The  head  of  the  Chi  clan  was  on  the  point  o* 
attacking  the  small  principality  of  Chuan-yii. 
Jan  Yu  and  Chi  Lu  came  to  see  Confucius,  and 
said  :  Our  lord  is  going  to  have  trouble  with 
Chuan-yii. — Confucius  said  :  Is  it  not  you,  Ch'iu, 
who  are  to  blame  in  this  ?  The  ancient  kings 
long  ago  made  Chuan-yii  the  centre  of  the  worship 
of  the  Eastern  Meng  mountain,  and  moreover 
it  is  situated  within  the  territory  of  Lu.  Its 
ruler  has  independent  priestly  functions.1  What 
right  have  you  to  attack  it  ? — Jan  Yu  replied  : 
It  is  the  will  of  our  master  ;  we,  his  ministers, 
have  neither  of  us  any  wish  to  act  thus. — Ch'iu, 
said  Confucius,  Chou  Jen  !  had  a  saying  :  "If 
you  are  capable  of  displaying  energy,  hold 
office ;  if  not,  resign."  Of  what  use  is  that 
minister  likely  to  be,  who  does  not  sustain  his 
master  in  the  presence  of  danger,  or  support  him 
when  about  to  fall  ?  Besides,  what  you  say  is 
wrong.  If  a  tiger  or  a  wild  buffalo  escapes 
from  its  cage,  if  a  tortoise-shell  or  jade  ornament 
is  smashed  in  its  casket,  whose  fault  is  it,  pray  ? — 
Jan  Yu  replied  :  But  Chuan-yii  is  strongly 
fortified,  and  close  to  our  own  town  of  Pi.  If^we 

1  Literally,  "  a  minister  of  the  altars  to  the  spirits  of  the 
land  and  grain  "  ;    i.e.   a  direct  vassal  of  the  Emperor,  and 
responsible  only  to  him. 

2  An  ancient  historiographer,  of  whom  very  little  is  known. 


GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS     49 

do  not  take  it  now,  it  will  cause  trouble  to  our 
descendants  in  a  later  generation. — Confucius 
rejoined :  Ch'iu,  an  honest  man  hates  your 
hypocrite  who  will  not  openly  avow  his  greed,  but 
tries  instead  to  excuse  it.  I  have  heard  that  the 
ruler  of  a  state  or  of  a  clan  is  troubled  not  by  the 
smallness  of  its  numbers  but  by  the  absence  of 
even-handed  justice  ;  not  by  poverty  but  by 
the  presence  of  discontent ;  for  where  there  is 
justice  there  will  be  no  poverty ;  where  there  is 
harmony  there  will  be  no  lack  in  numbers ; 
where  there  is  content  there  will  be  no  revolution. 
This  being  the  case  then,  if  outlying  communities 
resist  your  authority,  cultivate  the  arts  of  refine- 
ment and  goodness  in  order  to  attract  them  ; 
and  when  you  have  attracted  them,  make  them 
happy  and  contented.  Now  you  two,  Yu  and 
Ch'iu,  are  aiding  and  abetting  your  master ; 
here  is  an  outlying  community  which  resists  your 
authority,  and  you  are  unable  to  attract  it. 
Partition  and  collapse  are  imminent  in  your  own 
State,  and  you  are  unable  to  preserve  it  intact. 
And  yet  you  are  planning  military  aggression 
within  the  borders  of  your  country  !  Verily  I 
fear  that  Chi-sun's  l  troubles  will  come,  not  from 
Chuan-yii,  but  from  the  interior  of  his  own  palace. 

When   the   Master     came    to   Wu-ch'eng,    he 
heard  the  sound  of  singing  and  stringed  instru- 

1  The  head  of  the  Chi  clan  mentioned  above. 


50    GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS 

ments.  He  was  pleased,  but  said  with  a  smile  : 
Is  it  necessary  to  take  a  pole-axe  to  kill  a  fowl  ? — 
Tzu  Yu  replied  :  Some  time  ago,  Sir,  I  heard 
you  say  that  the  study  of  true  principles  made 
the  ruler  beneficent  and  men  of  the  lower  class 
easy  to  govern. — My  children,  said  the  Master, 
Yen  is  right.  What  I  said  was  only  in  jest.1 

Tzii  Chang  asked  Confucius,  saying :  What  are 
the  essentials  of  good  government  ? — The  Master 
said  :  Esteem  the  five  excellent,  and  banish  the 
four  evil  things  ;  then  you  will  become  fit  to 
govern. — Tzu  Chang  asked  :  What  are  the  five 
excellent  things  ? — The  Master  replied  :  The 
wise  and  good  ruler  is  benevolent  without  ex- 
pending treasure  ;  he  lays  burdens  on  the  people 
without  causing  them  to  grumble ;  he  has 
desires  without  being  covetous  ;  he  is  serene 
without  being  proud  ;  he  is  awe-inspiring  without 
being  ferocious. — He  is  benevolent  without  ex- 
pending treasure  :  what  does  that  mean  ? — The 
Master  replied  :  He  simply  follows  the  course 
which  naturally  brings  benefit  to  the  people.8  Is 

1  Wu-ch'cng  means  "  Martial  city,"  so  called  from,  its  impreg- 
nable position.     Tzu  Yu,  when  appointed  governor,  had  suc- 
ceeded in  weaning  the  people  from  their  warlike  propensities, 
and  in  introducing  the  milder  arts  of  peace.    This  is  what  made 
the  Master  glad,  though  he  could  not  help  being  amused  at 
the  application  of  the  loftiest  principles  to  such  a  tiny  com- 
munity.    About  ancient  Chinese  music  we  know  unfortunately 
next  to  nothing,  but  it  seems  to  have  played  as  important  a 
part  under  the  Chou  dynasty  as  in  Plato's  ideal  State. 

2  That  is  to  say,  the  ruler  will  always  keep  the  welfare 


GOVERNMENT  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS     51 

he  not  thus  benevolent  without  expending 
treasure  ?  In  imposing  burdens,  he  chooses  the 
right  time  and  the  right  means,  and  nobody  can 
grumble.  His  desire  is  for  goodness,  and  he 
achieves  it ;  how  should  he  be  covetous  ?  The 
wise  and  good  ruler  never  allows  himself  to  be 
negligent,  whether  he  is  dealing  with  many  men 
or  with  few,  with  small  matters  or  with  great. 
Is  this  not  serenity  without  pride  ?  He  has  his 
cap  and  robe  properly  adjusted,  and  throws  a 
noble  dignity  into  his  looks,  so  that  his  gravity 
inspires  onlookers  with  respect.  Is  he  not  thus 
awe-inspiring  without  being  ferocious  ? — Tzu 
Chang  then  asked :  What  are  the  four  evil 
things  ? — The  Master  said  :  Cruelty  : — leaving 
the  people  in  their  native  ignorance,  yet  punishing 
their  wrong-doing  with  death.  Oppression  : — 
requiring  the  immediate  completion  of  tasks 
imposed  without  previous  warning.  Ruthless- 
ness  : — giving  vague  orders,  and  then  insisting 
on  punctual  fulfilment.  Peddling  husbandry  : — 
stinginess  in  conferring  the  proper  rewards  on 
deserving  men.1 

of  his  people  in  view,  but  without  indulging  in  indiscriminate 
largess.  The  ever-increasing  doles  of  money  and  corn  with 
which  the  Roman  Emperors  were  obliged  to  buy  the  favour  of 
the  populace  would  thus  have  fallen  under  the  condemnation 
of  Confucius. 

1  The  "four  evil  things  "  really  turn  out  to  be  reducible 
to  two,  namely  ( 1 )  Cruelty— covering  the  first  three  ;  and 
(2)  " 


INDIVIDUAL  VIRTUE 

The  Master  said  :  Is  he  not  a  princely  man  l — 
he  who  is  never  vexed  that  others  know  him  not  ? 

True  virtue  2    rarely  goes  with  artful  speech 
and  insinuating  looks. 

1  This  is   the   much-discussed  chiin  tzt/,  an  expression  of 
which  the  stereotyped  English  equivalent  is  "  the  superior 
man."     But  in  this  there  is,  unhappily,  a  tinge  of  blended 
superciliousness  and  irony  absolutely  foreign  to  the  native 
phrase,  which  in  my  opinion  makes  it  unsuitable.     "  Princely 
man  "   is  as  nearly  as  possible  the  literal  translation,  and 
sometimes,  as   we  shall   see,   it   actually  means    "  prince." 
But  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  connotation  of  rank  or 
authority  is  certainly  not  explicit,  and  as  a  general  rendering 
I  have  preferred  "  the  higher  type  of  man,"   "  the  nobler 
sort  of  man,"  or  sometimes  more  simply,  "  the  good  man." 
Perhaps  the  nearest  approximation  in  any  European  language 
is  to  be  found   in    the   Greek    6  /caXds  icdya66s,   because  that 
implies  high  mental  and  moral  qualities  combined  with  all 
the  outward  bearing  of  a  gentleman.     Compare  also  Aristotle's 
6  crirovSatos,  who  is  however  rather  more  abstract  and  ideal. 

2  Jen,  the  term  here  translated  "  virtue,"  is  perhaps  the 
most  important  single  word  in  the  Analects,  and  the  real 
corner-stone    of    Confucian    ethics.     Its    primary    meaning, 
in    accordance     with    the    etymology,   is    "  humanity  "    in 
the  larger  sense,  i.e.  natural  goodness  of  heart  as  shown  in 
intercourse  with  one's  fellow-men.     Hence  it  is  sometimes 
best    translated    "  loving-kindness "    or    "  charity  "    in    the 
biblical  sense,  though  in  many  cases  a  more  convenient,  if 
vaguer,  rendering  is  "  virtue,"  "  moral  virtue,"  or  even,  as 
in  Legge,  "  perfect  virtue." 

52 


INDIVIDUAL    VIRTUE  53 

At  home,  a  young  man  should  show  the  qualities 
of  a  son  ;  abroad,  those  of  a  younger  brother.  He 
should  be  circumspect  but  truthful.  He  should 
have  charity  in  his  heart  for  all  men,  but  associate 
only  with  the  virtuous.  After  thus  regulating 
his  conduct,  his  surplus  energy  should  be  de- 
voted to  literary  culture. 

In  the  matter  of  food  and  lodging,  the  nobler 
type  of  man  does  not  seek  mere  repletion  and 
comfort.  He  is  earnest  in  his  affairs  and  cautious 
in  his  speech,  and  frequents  virtuous  company 
for  his  own  improvement.  He  may  be  called 
one  truly  bent  on  the  study  of  virtue.1 

Meng  I  Tzu 8  asked  for  a  definition  of  filial  piety. 
The  Master  said  :  It  consists  in  there  being  no 
falling  off.3 — Fan  Ch'ih  was  driving  the  Master's 
carriage  some  time  after,  when  the  latter  told 
him,  saying  :  Meng  I  Tzu  asked  me  about  filial 

1  Literally,  "  he  may  be  called  a  lover  of  learning."     But 
"  learning  "  in  the  mouth  of  Confucius  is  generally  to  be 
understood  as  study  of    the  rules  of  right  conduct  with  a 
view  to  their  practical  application.     The  object  of  all  learning 
was  to  enable  a  man  to  develop  the  natural  goodness  within 
him,  so  as  to  lead  a  life  of  virtuous  culture.     It  was  not 
pursued  solely  for  its  own  sake,  nor  had  it  become,  as  with  us, 
divorced  from  all  ethical  significance. 

2  The  chief  of  the  house  of  Meng,  one  of  the  three  great 
families  of  Lu,  and  (according  to  SsCi-ma  Ch'ien)  a  disciple 
of  Confucius. 

3  The  reply  is  enigmatical,  but  it  is  clear  from  what  follows 
that  this,  and  not,  as  Legge  translates,   "  disobedience,"   is 
the  true  meaning. 


54  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

piety,  and  I  answered  that  it  consisted  in  there 
being  no  falling  off. — Fan  Ch'ih  said  :  What  did 
you  mean  ? — The  Master  replied  :  That  parents 
should  be  served  in  the  proper  spirit  while  living, 
buried  with  the  proper  rites  after  death,  and 
worshipped  thereafter  with  the  proper  sacrifices. 

Meng  Wu  Po  *  asked  for  a  definition  of  filial 
piety.  The  Master  said :  There  is  filial  piety 
when  parents  are  spared  all  anxiety  about  their 
children  except  when  they  happen  to  fall 
sick.8 

Tzu  Yu  put  a  question  on  the  subject  of  filial 
piety.  The  Master  said :  The  filial  piety  of 
to-day  reduces  itself  to  the  mere  question  of 
maintenance.  Yet  this  is  something  in  which 
even  our  dogs  and  horses  have  a  share.'  Without 
the  feeling  of  reverence,  what  is  there  to  distin- 
guish the  two  cases  ? 

1  The  eldest  son  of  Meng  I  Tzfi. 

2  It  is  astonishing  that    Chu  Hsi  should  have  tried  to 
improve  on  the  old  commentators  here,  and  almost  equally 
astonishing  that  Legge  should  have  followed  him,  with  this 
result :     "  The  Master  said,  Parents  are  anxious  lest  their 
children   should   be   sick "    (and   therefore   children   should 
take  care  of  their  persons)  ! 

3  Here   again  it  is  almost  incredible  that  Legge  should 
have  adopted  such  a  ridiculous  interpretation  as  the  follow- 
ing— without  the  authority,  this  time,  of  Chu  Hsi :     "  The 
filial  piety  of  nowadays  means  the  support  of  one's  parents. 
But  dogs  and  horses  likewise  are  able  to  do  something  in  the 
way  of  support."     The  image  conjured  up  by  this  sentence 
is  grotesque,  to  say  the  least. 


INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE  55 

Tzu  Hsia  also  asked  about  filial  piety.  The 
Master  said  :  It  can  hardly  be  gauged  from  mere 
outward  acts.1  When  there  is  work  to  be  done, 
to  relieve  one's  elders  of  the  toil ;  or  when  there 
is  wine  and  food,  to  cause  them  to  partake 
thereof — is  this  to  be  reckoned  filial  piety  ?  8 

Tzu  Kung  inquired  about  the  higher  type  of 
man.  The  Master  replied  :  The  higher  type  of 
man  is  one  who  acts  before  he  speaks,  and  pro- 
fesses only  what  he  practises. 

The  Master  said  :  The  higher  type  of  man  is 
catholic  in  his  sympathy  and  free  from  party 
bias  ;  the  lower  type  of  man  is  biassed  and  un- 
sympathetic. 

A  man  without  charity  in  his  heart — what  has 

1  Literally,  "  colour   difficult."     This  famous  sentence,  a 
stumbling-block  to  native  and  foreigner  alike,  surely  marks 
the  extreme  limit  to  which  conciseness  can  be  carried  in 
Chinese.     "  The  difficulty  is  with  the  countenance  "  is  the 
lame  translation  offered  by  Legge,  and  later  scholars  have 
mostly  followed  in  his  footsteps,  even  Mr.  Ku  Hung-ming  fail- 
ing badly  for  once.     Where  all  have  gone  astray  is  in  taking 
the  "  difficulty  "  to  exist  in  the  mind  of  the  would-be  filial 
son,  instead  of  being  that  felt  by  the  onlooker  who  wishes  to 
gauge  the  genuineness  of  the  quality  in  others.     Only  a  few 
months  ago,  a  new  and  ingenious  interpretation  was  suggested 
by  my  father,  Professor  H.  A.  Giles,  namely  :   "To  define  it  is 
difficult ' ' ;   but  after  much  consideration  I  am  led  to  prefer 
the  rendering  in  the  text,  inasmuch  as  the  word  se  is  quite 
commonly  used  to  denote  the  external  as  opposed  to  the 
internal,  form  as  opposed  to  essence. 

2  The  answer    of  course  is — No  ;     outward    acts  do  not 
constitute  filial  piety,  unless  prompted  by  a  genuine  duteous 
feeling  in  the  heart, 


66  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

he  to  do  with  ceremonies  ?    A  man  without  chanty 
in  his  heart — what  has  he  to  do  with  music  ?  x 

Lin  Fang  inquired  as  to  the  prime  essential  in 
ceremonial  observances.  The  Master  said  :  Ah, 
that  is  a  great  question  indeed  !  In  all  rites, 
simplicity  is  better  than  extravagance  ;  in 
mourning  for  the  dead,  heartfelt  sorrow  is  better 
than  punctiliousness. 

The  Master  said :  The  true  gentleman  is  never 
contentious.  If  a  spirit  of  rivalry  is  anywhere 
unavoidable,  it  is  at  a  shooting-match.  Yet 
even  here  he  courteously  salutes  his  opponents 
before  taking  up  his  position,  and  again  when, 
having  lost,  he  retires  to  drink  the  forfeit-cup. 
So  that  even  when  competing  he  remains  a  true 
gentleman. 

It  is  the  spirit  of  charity  which  makes  a  locality 
good  to  dwell  in.  He  who  selects  a  neighbour- 
hood without  regard  to  this  quality  cannot  be 
considered  wise. 

Only  he  who  has  the  spirit  of  goodness  within 
him  is  really  able  either  to  love  or  to  hate. 

The  princely  man  never  for  a  single  instant 
quits  the  path  of  virtue  ;  in  times  of  storm  and 
stress  he  remains  in  it  as  fast  as  ever. 

1  A  notable  utterance,  which  may  be  commended  to  those 
who  have  been  taught  to  regard  Confucius  as  a  man  of 
ceremonies  and  outward  show. 


INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE  57 

The  nobler  sort  of  man  in  his  progress  through 
the  world  has  neither  narrow  predilections  nor 
obstinate  antipathies.  What  he  follows  is  the 
line  of  duty. 

The  nobler  sort  of  man  is  proficient  in  the  know- 
ledge of  his  duty ;  the  inferior  man  is  proficient 
only  in  money-making. 

In  serving  his  father  and  mother,  a  son  may 
use  gentle  remonstrance  ;  if  he  sees  that  they 
pay  no  heed,  he  should  not  desist,  but  merely 
increase  in  deference  ;  if  his  pains  are  thrown 
away,  he  must  show  no  resentment. 

While  one's  parents  are  alive,  one  should  not 
travel  to  a  distance  ;  if  one  must  travel,  it  should 
be  in  a  fixed  direction.1 

The  age  of  one's  parents  should  always  be  kept 
in  mind — on  the  one  hand,  as  a  subject  for  re- 
joicing ;  on  the  other,  as  a  cause  for  alarm. 

The  wise  man  will  be  slow  to  speak  but  quick 
to  act. 

Tzu  Chang  asked,  saying  :  The  Prime  Minister 
Tzu  Wen  2  held  office  three  times,  but  showed 
no  joy  ;  he  lost  it  three  times,  but  testified  no 
concern.  When  he  ceased  to  be  Prime  Minister, 
he  was  careful  to  explain  the  political  situation  to 
his  successor.  What  is  your  opinion  of  him  ? — 

1  In  order  that  the  parents  may  know  where  their  son  is. 

2  Of  the  Ch'u  State. 


68  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

The  Master  said  :  He  was  loyal  and  conscien- 
tious.1— Had  lie  not  the  highest  degree  of  moral 
virtue  ? — That  I  do  not  know  ;  how  can  one 
judge  of  his  moral  virtue  ? — Tzu  Chang  continued  : 
When  Ts'ui  Tzu  2  slew  the  Prince  of  Ch'i,  Ch'en 
Wen  Tzu,  though  the  possessor  of  ten  teams  of 
war-horses,  forsook  his  wealth  and  turned  his 
back  on  the  country.  Having  come  to  another 
state,  he  said  :  "  Here  they  are  as  bad  as  our 
own  minister  Ts'ui  Tzu,"  and  departed.  And 
he  repeated  this  proceeding  each  time  that  he 
came  to  a  new  state.3  What  is  your  opinion  of 
him  ? — The  Master  said  :  He  was  pure  and  in- 
corruptible.— Had  he  not  the  highest  degree  of 
virtue  ? — I  cannot  say  ;  how  is  one  to  judge  ? 

The  Master  said  :  When  the  solid  outweighs 
the  ornamental,  we  have  boorishness  ;  when  the 
ornamental  outweighs  the  solid,  we  have  super- 
ficial smartness.  Only  from  a  proper  blending 
of  the  two  will  the  higher  type  of  man  emerge. 

1  The  root  idea  of    this  word  chung  is  loyalty  to  oneself, 
devotion  to  principle,  or,  as  Mr.  Ku  Hung-ming  well  translates 
it,  conscientiousness.     Loyalty  or  fidelity  to  the  sovereign 
is  only  an  extended  sense.     Here  the  two  ideas  appear  to  be 
blended,  but  in  a  famous  passage  to  be  noted  further  on 
(p.  118)  much  trouble  has  resulted  from  ignoring  the  first  and 
fundamental  meaning. 

2  A  high  officer  in  Ch'i,  the  state  adjoining  Lu. 

3  The  fact  that  Ch'en  Wen  Tzu  could  not  reconcile  it  with 
his  conscience  to  settle  in  any  of  the  states  which  he  visited 
throws  a  lurid  light  on  the  disorder  prevailing  in  the  Empire 
at    this   period    (547    B.C.).     Murder    and   usurpation   were 
evidently  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception, 


INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE  59 

All  men  are  born  good.  He  who  loses  his  good- 
ness and  yet  lives  is  lucky  to  escape. 

Better  than  one  who  knows  what  is  right  is  one 
who  is  fond  of  what  is  right  ;  and  better  than 
one  who  is  fond  of  what  is  right  is  one  who 
delights  in  what  is  right. 

Fan  Ch'ih  asked  in  what  wisdom  consisted. 
The  Master  said  :  Make  righteousness  in  human 
affairs  your  aim,  treat  all  supernatural  beings  with 
respect,  but  keep  aloof  from  them — then  you  may 
be  called  wise.  Asked  about  moral  virtue,  he 
replied  :  The  virtuous  man  thinks  of  the  difficult 
thing  l  first,  and  makes  material  advantage  only 
a  secondary  consideration.  This  may  be  said  to 
constitute  moral  virtue. 

The  Master  said  :  The  man  of  knowledge  finds 
pleasure  in  the  sea,  the  man  of  virtue  finds 
pleasure  in  the  mountains.2  For  the  man  of 
knowledge  is  restless  and  the  man  of  virtue  is 
calm.  The  man  of  knowledge  is  happy,  and  the 
man  of  virtue  is  long-lived. 

The  higher  type  of  man,  having  gathered  wide 
objective  knowledge  from  the  branches  of  polite 
learning,  will  regulate  the  whole  by  the  inner 

1  That  is  to  say,  the  virtuous  act,  which  he  will  perform  for 
its  own  sake,  regardless  of  consequences. 

2  Each  finds  pleasure  in  that  part  of   Nature  which  re- 
sembles himself. 


60  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

rule  of  conduct,1  and  will  thus  avoid  overstepping 
the  limit. 

That  virtue  is  perfect  which  adheres  to  a  con- 
stant mean.  It  has  long  been  rare  amongst  men. 

Tzu  Kung  asked  :  What  would  you  say  of  the 
man  who  conferred  benefits  far  and  wide  on  the 
people  and  was  able  to  be  the  salvation  of  all  ? 
Would  you  pronounce  him  a  man  of  moral  virtue  ? 
— Of  moral  virtue  ?  said  the  Master.  Nay,  rather, 
of  divine  virtue.2  Even  Yao  and  Shun  were  still 
striving  to  attain  this  height. 

The  man  of  moral  virtue,  wishing  to  stand  firm 
himself,  will  lend  firmness  unto  others ;  wishing 

1  As  may  be  inferred  from  its  composition,  the  character 
li  originally  had  sole  reference  to  religious  rites,  whence  how- 
ever it  came  to  be  applied  to  every  sort  of  ceremonial,  includ- 
ing the  ordinary  rules  of  politeness,  the  etiquette  of  society, 
the  conduct  befitting  all  stations  of  life,  and  moreover  to  the 
state  of  mind  of  which  such  conduct  is  the  outcome.     This 
state  of  mind  is  one  of  equably  adjusted  harmony  and  self- 
restraint,  and  it  is  in  this  sense  of  an  inward  principle  of  pro- 
portion and  self-control  that  the  word  is  frequently  used  in 
the  Analects.     Why  such  a  vile  phrase  as  "  the  rules  of  pro- 
priety "  was  ever  coined  to  express  this  subtle  conception, 
and  retained  in  every  context,  however  inappropriate,  must 
remain  an  insoluble  mystery.     Is  it  surprising  that  one  of  the 
greatest  of  world-teachers  should  still  be  waiting  to  come  into 
his  full  heritage,  when  his  sayings  are  made  to  suggest  nothing 
so  much  as  the  headmistress  of  a  young  ladies'  seminary  ? 

2  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  Confucius  allows  a  grade 
of  heroic  and  almost  divine  virtue  even  above  that  which 
constitutes    complete   goodness   for    all   practical    purposes, 
just  as  Aristotle  places  his  M6s  m  dvS/p  above  the 


INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE  61 

himself  to  be  illuminated,  he  will  illuminate 
others.  To  be  able  to  do  to  others  as  we  would  be 
done  by  * — this  is  the  true  domain  of  moral  virtue. 

It  has  not  been  my  lot  to  see  a  divine  man  ; 
could  I  see  a  princely  man,  that  would  satisfy 
me.  It  has  not  been  my  lot  to  see  a  thoroughly 
virtuous  man  ;  could  I  see  a  man  possessing 
honesty  of  soul,  that  would  satisfy  me.  Is  it 
possible  there  should  be  honesty  of  soul  in  one  who 
pretends  to  have  what  he  has  not ;  who,  when 
empty,  pretends  to  be  overflowing  ;  who,  when 
in  want,  pretends  to  be  in  affluence  ? 

The  higher  type  of  man  is  calm  and  serene  ;  the 
inferior  man  is  constantly  agitated  and  worried. 

With  sincerity  and  truth  unite  a  desire  for  self- 
culture.  Lay  down  your  life  rather  than  quit 
the  path  of  virtue.  Enter  not  the  state  which  is 
tottering  to  its  fall.  Abide  not  in  the  state  where 
sedition  is  rampant.  When  law  obtains  in  the 
Empire,  let  yourself  be  seen  ;  when  lawlessness 
reigns,  retire  into  obscurity.  In  a  state  governed 
on  right  principles,  poverty  and  low  station  are 
things  to  be  ashamed  of  ;  in  an  ill-governed  state, 
riches  and  rank  are  things  to  be  ashamed  of. 

The  man  of  wisdom  does  not  vacillate  ;    the 

1  It  is  only  fair  to  mention  that  the  above  is  not  an  exact 
translation  of  the  words  in  the  Chinese  text,  though  I  believe 
their  import  to  be  what  I  have  set  down.  The  point  is  too 
technical  and  abstruse  to  be  discussed  here. 


62  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

man  of  natural  goodness  does  not  fret ;   the  man 
of  valour  does  not  fear. 

Yen  Yiian  inquired  as  to  the  meaning  of  true 
goodness.  The  Master  said :  The  subdual  of 
self,  and  reversion  to  the  natural  laws  governing 
conduct — this  is  true  goodness.  If  a  man  can 
for  the  space  of  one  day  subdue  his  selfishness  and 
revert  to  natural  laws,  the  whole  world  will  call 
him  good.  True  goodness  springs  from  a  man's 
own  heart.  How  can  it  depend  on  other  men  ? — 
Yen  Yiian  said  :  Kindly  tell  me  the  practical  rule 
to  be  deduced  from  this. — The  Master  replied  : 
Do  not  use  your  eyes,  your  ears,  your  power  of 
speech  or  your  faculty  of  movement  without 
obeying  the  inner  law  of  self-control.1 — Yen  Yiian 
said  :  Though  I  am  not  quick  in  thought  or  act,  I 
will  make  it  my  business  to  carry  out  this  precept. 

Chung  Kung  inquired  as  to  the  meaning  of  true 
goodness.  The  Master  said  :  When  out  of  doors, 
behave  as  though  you  were  entertaining  a  dis- 
tinguished guest ;  in  ruling  the  people,  behave 
as  though  you  were  officiating  at  a  solemn  sacri- 
fice ;  what  you  would  not  wish  done  to  yourself, 
do  not  unto  others.8  Then  in  public  as  in 

1  See  note  on  p.  60.     This  is  the  solemn  nonsense  dished 
up  by  Legge  :    "  Look  not  at  what  is  contrary  to  propriety  ; 
listen  not  to  what  is  contrary  to  propriety  ;  speak  not  what  is 
contrary  to  propriety  ;  make  no  movement  which  is  contrary 
to  propriety." 

2  Confucius    here,   as  in  general,  suits  his  reply   to   the 


INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE  63 

private  life  you  will  excite  no  ill-will.  Chung  Kung 
said  :  Though  I  am  not  quick  in  thought  or  act,  I 
will  make  it  my  business  to  carry  out  this  precept. 

Ssu-ma  Niu  inquired  as  to  the  meaning  of  true 
goodness.  The  Master  said  :  The  truly  good  man 
is  slow  of  speech.1 — Slowness  of  speech  !  Is  this 
what  goodness  consists  in  ? — The  Master  said  : 
Does  not  the  difficulty  of  deciding  what  it  is  right 
to  do  necessarily  imply  slowness  to  speak  ? 

Ssu-ma  Niu  asked  for  a  definition  of  the 
princely  man.  The  Master  said  :  The  princely 
man  is  one  who  knows  neither  grief  nor  fear. — 
Absence  of  grief  and  fear  !  Is  this  the  mark  of 
a  princely  man  ? — The  Master  said :  If  on 
searching  his  heart  he  finds  no  guilt,  why  should 
he  grieve  ?  of  what  should  he  be  afraid  ? 

Tzu  Chang  asked  how  to  attain  exalted  virtue. 
.  .  .  The  Master  said  :  Make  conscientiousness 
and  truth  your  guiding  principles,  and  thus  pass 
on  to  the  cultivation  of  duty  to  your  neighbour. 
This  is  exalted  virtue. 

questioner.  In  answering  Yen  Yuan,  the  model  disciple, 
he  had  gone  to  the  very  root  of  the  matter,  making  it  clear 
that  the  essence  of  true  goodness  lias  little  or  nothing  to  do 
with  externals.  To  Chung  Kung,  who  was  less  advanced 
and  doubtless  somewhat  lacking  in  grace  or  dignity  of  de- 
meanour, he  gives  more  superficial  advice,  but  winds  up  by 
enunciating  the  Golden  Rule,  which  is  the  best  practical 
manner  of  manifesting  inward  goodness  of  heart. 

1  There  seems  to  be  a  play  on  this  word  which  cannot  be 
brought  out  in  translation. 


64  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

The  Master  said  :  The  nobler  sort  of  man 
emphasises  the  good  qualities  in  others,  and  does 
not  accentuate  the  bad.  The  inferior  sort  does 
the  reverse. 

Tzu  Chang  asked :  What  must  a  man  do 
in  order  to  be  considered  distinguished  ? — The 
Master  said  :  What  do  you  mean  by  the  term 
"  distinguished  "  ? — Tzu  Chang  replied  :  I  mean 
one  whose  fame  fills  both  his  own  private  circle 
and  the  State  at  large. — The  Master  said  :  That 
is  notoriety,  not  distinction.  The  man  of  true 
distinction  is  simple,  honest,  and  a  lover  of  justice 
and  duty.  He  weighs  men's  words,  and  observes 
the  expression  of  their  faces.1  He  is  anxious  to 
put  himself  below  others.  Such  a  one  is  truly 
distinguished  in  his  private  and  his  public  life. 
As  to  the  man  who  is  merely  much  talked  about, 
he  puts  on  an  appearance  of  charity  and  bene- 
volence, but  his  actions  belie  it.  He  is  self- 
satisfied  and  has  no  misgivings.  Neither  in 
private  nor  in  public  life  does  he  achieve  more 
than  notoriety. 

Tzu  Kung  asked  a  question  about  friendship. 
The  Master  said  :  Be  conscientious  in  speaking 
to  your  friend,  but  tactful  in  your  efforts  to  guide 
him  aright.  If  these  fail,  stop.  Do  not  court  a 
personal  rebuff. 

1  This  probably  means  that  he  will  not  rely  on  words  alono 
in  judging  of  character. 


INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE  65 

The  Duke  of  She  addressed  Confucius,  saying  : 
We  have  an  upright  man  in  our  country.  His 
father  stole  a  sheep,  and  the  son  bore  witness 
against  him. — In  our  country,  Confucius  replied, 
uprightness  is  something  different  from  this.  A 
father  hides  the  guilt  of  his  son,  and  a  son  hides 
the  guilt  of  his  father.  It  is  in  such  conduct  that 
true  uprightness  is  to  be  found. 

Fan  Ch'ih  asked  a  question  about  moral  virtue. 
The  Master  said  :  In  private  life,  show  self-respect ; 
in  the  management  of  affairs,  be  attentive  and 
thorough  ;  in  your  dealings  with  others,  be  honest 
and  conscientious.  Never  abandon  these  prin- 
ciples, even  among  savages. 

The  Master  said  :  The  nobler  sort  of  man  is 
accommodating  but  not  obsequious  ;  the  inferior 
sort  is  obsequious  but  not  accommodating. 

The  nobler  sort  of  man  is  easy  to  serve  yet 
difficult  to  please.  Who  seeks  to  please  him  in 
wrongful  ways  will  not  succeed.  In  exacting 
service  from  others,  he  takes  account  of  aptitudes 
and  limitations.  The  baser  sort  of  man  is  difficult 
to  serve  yet  easy  to  please.  Who  seeks  to  please 
him  in  any  wrongful  way  will  assuredly  succeed. 
And  he  requires  absolute  perfection  in  those 
from  whom  he  exacts  service. 

The  nobler  sort  of  man  is  dignified  but  not 
proud ;  the  inferior  man  is  proud  but  not  dignified. 

5 


66  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

Hsien  said  :  To  refrain  from  self-glorification, 
to  subdue  feelings  of  resentment,  to  control  selfish 
desire — may  this  be  held  to  constitute  perfect 
virtue  ? — The  Master  said  :  These  things  may 
certainly  be  considered  hard  to  achieve,  but  I 
am  not  so  sure  that  they  constitute  perfect 
virtue.1 

The  Master  said  :  A  man  of  inward  virtue  a 
will  have  virtuous  words  on  his  lips,  but  a  man  of 
virtuous  words  is  not  always  a  virtuous  man. 
The  man  of  perfect  goodness  2  is  sure  to  possess 
courage,  but  the  courageous  man  is  not  necessarily 
good. 

Can  true  love  be  anything  but  exacting  ? 
How  can  our  sense  of  duty  allow  us  to  abstain 
from  admonition  ? 

The  nobler  sort  of  man  tends  upwards  ;  the 
baser  sort  tends  downwards. 

The  princely  type  of  man  is  modest  in  his 
speech,  but  liberal  in  his  performance. 

The   princely   man   has   three   great   virtues, 

1  Being  too  purely  negative. 

2  It  is    almost  impossible,  here  and  in  other  passages,  to 
make  any  real  distinction  of  moaning  between  to,  the  mani- 
festation of  eternal  principles  in  the  soul  of  man,  and  jcn, 
natural  goodness  of  heart,  though  the  former,  being  more 
universal  and  abstract,  may  be  said  to  include  the  latter, 
which  generally  implies  a  certain  relation  to  one's  fellow- 


INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE  67 

which  I  cannot  claim  for  myself.  He  is  truly 
benevolent,  and  is  free  from  care  ;  he  is  truly 
wise,  and  is  free  from  delusions  ;  he  is  truly 
brave,  and  is  free  from  fear. — Nay,  replied  Tzu 
Kung,  these  virtues  are  our  Master's  own.1 

The  Master  said  :  Is  not  he  a  sage  who  neither 
anticipates  deceit  nor  suspects  bad  faith  in  others, 
yet  is  prompt  to  detect  them  when  they  appear  ? 

Some  one  asked  :  How  do  you  regard  the 
principle  of  returning  good  for  evil  ? — The 
Master  said  :  What,  then,  is  to  be  the  return  for 
good  ?  Rather  should  you  return  justice  for 
injustice,  and  good  for  good.* 

Tzu  Lu  asked  about  the  conduct  of  the  princely 
man.3  The  Master  said  :  He  cultivates  himself 
so  as  to  gain  in  self-respect. — Does  he  rest  content 
with  that  ? — He  cultivates  himself,  was  the  reply, 
so  as  to  give  happiness  to  others. — And  is  he 
content  with  that  ? — He  cultivates  himself  so  as  to 
confer  peace  and  prosperity  on  the  whole  people. 

1  This  is  surely  the  obvious  rendering,  yet  all  previous 
translators  have  taken  the  second  too  in  the  sense  of  "  to  say." 
Thus  Legge  has  :    "  Master,  that  is  what  you  yourself  say." 

2  The  principle  of    returning  good  for  evil,  which  is  here 
apparently   represented    as    a   woll-known    ethical    doctrine, 
was  first  enunciated,  so  far  as  wo  know,  by  Lao  Tzu.     Con- 
fucius rejects  this  vain  idealism,  and  advocates  the  much 
sounder  and  more  practical  basis  for  society  given  in  the 
text. 

3  Here  chtin  tzii  seems  almost  to  denote  an  actual  prince, 
not  merely  a  man  with  princely  qualities. 


68  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

By  self-cultivation  to  confer  peace  and  prosperity 
on  the  whole  people  ! — was  not  this  the  object 
which  Yao  and  Shun  still  laboured  to  attain  ? 

Tzu  Kung  asked  for  advice  on  the  practice  of 
moral  virtue.  The  Master  replied  :  If  an  artisan 
wants  to  do  his  work  well,  he  must  begin  by 
sharpening  his  tools.  Even  so,  among  the  great 
men  of  your  country,  you  should  serve  the  wise 
and  good,  and  make  friends  of  men  who  have 
this  moral  virtue. 

The  Master  said  :  The  higher  type  of  man 
makes  a  sense  of  duty  the  groundwork  of  his 
character,  blends  with  it  in  action  a  sense  of 
harmonious  proportion,  manifests  it  in  a  spirit 
of  unselfishness,  and  perfects  it  by  the  addition 
of  sincerity  and  truth.  Then  indeed  is  he  a  noble 
character. 

The  higher  type  of  man  seeks  all  that  he  wants 
in  himself  ;  the  inferior  man  seeks  all  that  he 
wants  from  others. 

The  higher  type  of  man  is  firm  but  not  quarrel- 
some ;  sociable,  but  not  clannish. 

The  wise  man  does  not  esteem  a  person  more 
highly  because  of  what  he  says,  neither  does  he 
undervalue  what  is  said  because  of  the  person 
who  says  it. 

Tzu  Kung  asked,  saying  :    Is  there  any  one 


INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUF  69 

maxim  which  ought  to  be  acted  upon  throughout 
one's  whole  life  ? — The  Master  replied  :  Surely 
the  maxim  of  charity  1  is  such  : — Do  not  unto 
others  what  you  would  not  they  should  do  unto 
you. 

The  nobler  sort  of  man  pays  special  attention 
to  nine  points.  He  is  anxious  to  see  clearly,  to 
hear  distinctly,  to  be  kindly  in  his  looks,  respectful 
in  his  demeanour,  conscientious  in  his  speech, 
earnest  in  his  affairs  ;  when  in  doubt,  he  is  care- 
ful to  inquire  ;  when  in  anger,  he  thinks  of  the 
consequences  ;  when  offered  an  opportunity  for 
gain,  he  thinks  only  of  his  duty. 

Tzii  Chang  asked  Confucius  a  question  about 
moral  virtue.  Confucius  replied  :  Moral  virtue 
simply  consists  in  being  able,  anywhere  and 
everywhere,  to  exercise  five  particular  qualities. 
Asked  what  these  were,  he  said  :  Self-respect, 
magnanimity,  sincerity,  earnestness  and  bene- 
volence. Show  self-respect,  and  others  will  re- 

1  Legge  translates  ahu  "  reciprocity,"  apparently  for 
no  other  reason  than  to  explain  the  maxim  that  follows. 
But  it  really  stands  for  something  higher  than  the  strictly 
utilitarian  principle  of  do  ut  des.  Both  here  and  in  another 
famous  passage  (see  p.  118)  it  is  almost  equivalent  to  jen, 
goodness  of  heart,  only  with  the  idea  of  altruism  more  ex- 
plicitly brought  out.  It  connotes  sympathetic  consideration 
for  others,  and  hence  the  best  rendering  would  seem  to  be 
"  loving-kindness  "  or  "  charity."  The  concluding  maxim 
is  really  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  Golden  Rule  of  Christ, 
though  less  familiar  to  us  in  its  negative  forrq, 


70  INDIVIDUAL   VIRTUE 

spect  you ;  1  be  magnanimous,  and  you  will 
win  all  hearts  ;  be  sincere,  and  men  will  trust 
you  ;  be  earnest,  and  you  will  achieve  great 
things  ;  be  benevolent,  and  you  will  be  fit  to 
impose  your  will  on  others. 

Tzu  Lu  asked  :  Does  not  the  princely  man  * 
value  courage  ? — The  Master  said  :  He  puts 
righteousness  first.  The  man  of  high  station  2 
who  has  courage  without  righteousness  is  a  menace 
to  the  State  ;  the  common  man  who  has  courage 
without  righteousness  is  nothing  more  than  a 
brigand. 

Tzu  Rung  asked  :  Has  the  nobler  sort  of  man 
any  hatreds  ? — The  Master  replied  :  He  has. 
He  hates  those  who  publish  the  faults  of  others  ; 
he  hates  men  of  low  condition  who  vilify  those 
above  them  ;  he  hates  those  whose  courage  is 
unaccompanied  by  self-restraint ;  he  hates  those 
who  are  audacious  but  narrow-minded.  And 
you,  Tz'u,  he  added,  have  you  also  your  hatreds  ? 
— I  hate,  replied  the  disciple,  those  who  think 
that  wisdom  consists  in  prying  and  meddling  ; 
courage,  in  showing  no  compliance  ;  and  honesty, 
in  denouncing  other  men. 

1  The    Chinese  have  a  proverb :     "  A  man  must  insult 
himself  before  others  will." 

2  A  good  example  of   the  fluctuating  content  of  the  term 
chun  tzu,  which  in  the  disciple's  qxiestion  implies  morality 
without  reference  to  rank,  and  in  the  Master's  reply  rank  and 
authority  without  definite  moral  qualities. 


CONFUCIUS'   ESTIMATE   OF   OTHERS 

The  Master  said  :  I  may  talk  all  day  to  Hui 
without  his  putting  in  a  word  of  criticism  or 
dissent — just  as  though  he  were  deficient  in 
understanding.  But  after  he  has  left  me,  I  find, 
on  examining  his  private  conduct,  that  he  knows 
for  all  that  how  to  exemplify  my  teaching.  No  ! 
Hui  is  not  deficient  in  understanding. 

Tzu  Kung  asked,  saying  :  What,  Sir,  is  your 
opinion  of  me  ? — I  would  liken  you,  Tz'u,  replied 
the  Master,  to  a  vessel  limited  in  its  function. — 
What  sort  of  vessel  ?  asked  Tzu  Kung. — A  richly 
ornamented  sacrificial  vessel,  was  the  reply.1 

Some  one  remarked  that  Yung  had  goodness  of 
heart  but  no  cleverness  of  speech. — The  Master 
said  :  Of  what  use  is  cleverness  of  speech  ?  Those 

1  It  is  said  elsewhere  in  the  Analects  (see  p.  94)  that  "  the 
higher  type  of  man  is  unlike  a  vessel  designed  for  some 
special  use,"  which  means  that  his  moral  capacity  is  not 
narrow  and  limited.  Tzii  Kung,  then,  it  seems,  had  not  fully 
grasped  the  higher  principles  of  morality,  was  wanting  in 
breadth  of  mind  and  the  larger  outlook  on  life.  His  aptitudes, 
however,  were  excellent  so  far  as  they  went,  and  the  Master 
compliments  him  here  on  his  proficiency  in  things  relating 
to  religious  ceremonial. 

71 


72     CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS 

who  are  always  ready  to  assail  others  with  their 
tongue  are  sure  to  make  themselves  disliked. 
As  to  Yung's  goodness  of  heart  I  have  no  certain 
knowledge  ;  but  how  would  he  benefit  by  having 
cleverness  of  speech  ? 

The  Master  said  :  My  teaching  makes  no  head- 
way. How  and  if  I  were  to  board  a  raft  and  float 
away  over  the  sea  ?  My  friend  Yu  would  come 
with  me,  I  feel  sure. — Tzu  Lu,  hearing  this,  was 
glad.  The  Master  continued  :  Yu  surpasses  me 
in  his  love  of  daring,  but  he  lacks  discretion  and 
judgment. 

Meng  Wu  Po  asked  whether  Tzu  Lu  had  true 
moral  virtue.  The  Master  replied  :  I  do  not 
know. — Asked  a  second  time,  the  Master  said  : 
Yu  might  be  trusted  to  organise  the  military 
levies  of  a  large  and  powerful  State,  but  whether 
he  is  possessed  of  true  virtue  I  cannot  say. — And 
what  is  your  opinion  with  regard  to  Ch'iu  ? — The 
Master  said  :  Ch'iu  might  be  entrusted  with  the 
government  of  a  district  numbering  a  thousand 
households  or  a  hundred  war-chariots,  but 
whether  he  has  true  virtue  I  cannot  say. — And 
Ch'ih,  what  of  him  ?— The  Master  said  :  Ch'ih 
might  be  employed  to  stand  in  his  official  dress  at 
a  royal  levee  and  converse  with  the  visitors  and 
guests  ;  whether  he  has  true  virtue  I  cannot  say.1 

1  Confucius  probably  wished  to  impress  upon  his  questioner 
that  true  moral  virtue  (Jen)  was  deeply  implanted  in  the  soul, 


CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OP  OTHERS     73 

The  Master  addressing  Tzu  Kung  said  :  Which 
of  the  two  is  the  better  man,  you  or  Hui  ? — Tzu 
Kung  replied  :  How  can  I  venture  to  compare 
myself  with  Hui  ?  Hui  hears  one  point  and 
promptly  masters  the  whole.  I  hear  one  point 
and  am  only  able  to  feel  my  way  to  a  second. — 
The  Master  agreed  :  No,  you  are  not  equal  to 
Hui ;  neither  of  us  two  l  is  equal  to  Hui. 

Tsai  Yii  used  to  sleep  during  the  day.  The 
Master  said  :  Rotten  wood  cannot  be  carved, 
walls  made  of  dirt  and  mud  cannot  be  plastered  : 
— what  is  the  good  of  reprimanding  Yii  ?  At 
first,  he  continued,  my  way  of  dealing  with  others 
was  to  listen  to  their  words  and  to  take  their 
actions  upon  trust.  Now,  my  way  is  to  listen  to 
what  they  say  and  then  to  watch  what  they  do. 
This  change  in  me  is  owing  to  Yii. 

The  Master  said  :  I  have  never  yet  met  a  really 
strong  character. — Some  one  suggested  Shen 
Ch'eng. — The  Master  said  :  Ch'eng  is  a  slave  to 
his  passions.  How  can  he  possess  strength  of 
character  ? 

Tzu  Kung  said  :   I  am  anxious  to  avoid  doing 

and  not  to  be  gauged  offhand  from  the  presence  or  absence 
of  certain  superficial  signs. 

1  It  is  passing  strange  that  the  clumsy  "  I  grant  you  " 
for  wu  yii  ju  (I  and  you)  should  have  found  favour  with 
translators.  Wade  even  goes  one  better,  by  translating : 
"  I  award  you  this  praise,  Hui  does  not  equal  you  "  ! 


74    CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS 

to  others  that  which  I  would  not  have  them  do  to 
me.  The  Master  said  :  Tz'u,  you  have  not  got 
as  far  as  that. 

The  Master  said  of  Tzu  Ch'an 1  that  he  had  four 
of  the  qualities  of  the  princely  man  : — in  his 
personal  demeanour  he  was  grave,  in  serving  those 
above  him  he  was  attentive,  in  his  care  for  the 
people  he  was  kind,  in  his  ordering  of  the  people 
he  was  just. 

The  Master  said  :  Yen  P'ing  2  knows  the  art  of 
associating  with  his  friends  :  however  old  the 
acquaintance  may  be,  he  always  treats  them  with 
the  same  respect. 

Ning  Wu  TzuV  behaviour  was  wise  so  long 
as  his  country  was  well  governed  ;  when  revo- 
lution came,  his  behaviour  was  stupid.  His 
wisdom  may  be  equalled  by  others,  but  his 
stupidity  is  beyond  all  imitation. 

Po  I  and    Shu  Ch'i  *  never  remembered   old 

1  Prime  Minister  of  the  Cheng  State  in  the  sixth  century 
B.C.     When  he  had  ruled  for  three  years,  so  great  was  the 
change  effected  that  "  doors  were  not  locked  at  night,  and 
lost  articles  were  not  picked  up  on  the  highway."     Confucius 
wept  when  he  heard  of  his  death. 

2  Minister  in  the  neighbouring  state  of  Ch'i. 

3  A  minister  of  the  Wei  State  in  the  seventh  century  B.C. 
In  the  revolution  referred  to  the  prince  was  driven  from  his 
throne,  but  afterwards  reinstated  through  the  "  stupidity," 
that  is  to  say,  the  unwavering  loyalty  and  devotion  of  Ning. 

4  These  were  brothers,  celebrated  for  their  protest  against 


CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS     75 

injuries,  and  therefore  their  enemies  were 
few. 

Who  will  say  that  Wei-sheng  Kao  -1  was  an 
upright  man  ?  When  asked  by  somebody  for  some 
vinegar,  he  went  and  begged  it  of  a  neighbour, 
and  gave  this  to  the  man  who  had  asked  him. 

For  the  space  of  three  months  together  Hui 8 
would  not  deviate  in  spirit  from  the  path  of  perfect 
virtue.  My  other  disciples  may  attain  this  height 
once  in  a  day  or  in  a  month,  but  that  is  all. 

Po  Niu 3  lying  sick  unto  death,  the  Master  went 
to  visit  him.  He  clasped  his  hand  through  the 
window  and  said  :  He  is  dying.  Such  is  fate. 
Alas  !  that  such  a  man  should  have  such  an 
illness,  that  such  a  man  should  have  such  an  ill- 
ness ! 

the  overthrow  of  the  Yin  dynasty.  Rather  than  live  under 
the  rule  of  the  new  sovereign,  the  great  and  virtuous  Wu 
Wang,  they  wandered  away  intt  the  mountains  to  perish 
of  cold  and  hunger.  This  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  Chou  Hsin, 
one  of  the  bloodiest  and  most  infamous  tyrants  in  history, 
seems  a  shade  more  quixotic  than  the  conduct  of  those  who 
espoused  for  so  long  the  fallen  fortunes  of  the  house  of  Stuart. 

1  This  was  a  young  man  who,  if  legend  may  be  trusted, 
died  more  heroically  than  he  lived.     He  agreed  to  meet  a 
girl  under  a  bridge,  but,  woman-like,  she  failed  to  keep  her 
appointment.     Though   the   water   was   rising   rapidly,   her 
lover  waited  on,  unwilling  to  quit  his  post,  and  finally  clung 
to  a  pillar  until  he  was  drowned. 

2  This  is  the  man  whom  Confucius,  according  to  Wade 
(see  p.  73),  ranked  below  Tzii  Kung  ! 

3  Po  Niu  is  said  to  have  been  suffering  from  leprosy,  and 
therefore  he  would  not  allow  visitors  to  enter  his  room. 


76    CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS 

The  Master  said  :  Hui  was  indeed  a  philo- 
sopher !  Other  men  living  as  he  did,  in  a  miser- 
able alley,  with  a  single  dish  of  food  and  a  single 
bowl  of  drink,  could  not  have  endured  the  distress. 
But  Hui  was  invariably  cheerful.  He  was  a 
philosopher  indeed  ! 

Jan  Ch'iu  said  :  It  is  not  that  I  have  no  joy  in 
my  Master's  teaching,  it  is  my  strength  that  fails 
me. — The  Master  replied  :  Those  whose  strength 
fails  them  fall  fainting  by  the  way.  What  you 
do  is  to  set  up  bounds  which  you  will  not  attempt 
to  pass. 

The  Master  said  :  Meng  Chih-fan  is  no  braggart. 
Once  after  a  defeat,  when  he  was  bringing  up  the 
rear,  he  whipped  his  horse  as  he  was  about  to 
enter  the  city  gate,  and  cried  :  It  is  not  courage 
that  makes  me  last,  it  is  my  horse  that  won't 
gallop  fast  enough.1 

The  Master  addressing  Yen  Yuan  said  :  It  is 
only  you  and  I  who  would  be  content  to  accept 

1  Few  will  see  anything  harmful  in  this  anecdote  as  told 
by  Confucius.  Yet  it  is  actually  made  to  figure  in  the  general 
charge  of  insincerity  and  untruthfulness  brought  against  him 
by  Legge.  "  The  action  was  gallant,"  he  says,  "  but  the 
apology  for  it  was  weak  and  unnecessary.  And  yet  Confucius 
saw  nothing  in  the  whole  but  matter  for  praise."  In  the  first 

Elace,  Legge  entirely  ignores  the  possibility  that  Meng  Chili- 
an was  really  speaking  the  truth.     But  even  if  it  were  other- 
wise, Confucius'  only  comment  is  that  he  was  "  no  braggart." 
Surely  it  is  an  overstrained  morality  that  could  be  offended 
by  this. 


CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS     77 

public  employment  when  it  was  offered  to  us, 
and  to  retire  into  obscurity  when  we  were  dis- 
missed.— Tzu  Lu  then  said  :  If  you,  Sir,  had  the 
conduct  of  three  legions,  whom  would  you 
associate  with  yourself  in  the  command  ? — I  would 
not,  replied  the  Master,  choose  a  man  who  would 
attack  a  tiger  unarmed,  cross  a  river  without  a 
boat,  or  sacrifice  his  life  without  a  moment's 
regret.  Rather  should  it  be  one  who  would  not 
embark  on  an  enterprise  without  anxiety,  and 
who  was  accustomed  to  lay  his  plans  well  before 
putting  them  into  execution.1 

The  Master  said  :  T'ai  Po  may  be  said  to  have 
reached  the  summit  of  virtue.  Having  reso- 
lutely renounced  the  Imperial  throne,  he  put  it 
out  of  the  people's  power  to  glorify  his  act  of 
renunciation  !  a 


1  Compare  Moltke's  motto  :    "  Erst  wagen,  dann  wagen." 
Tzu    Lu    was    noted    for    his    reckless    bravery.     Evidently 
jealous  of  the  praise  bestowed  on  Yen  Yuan,  he  makes  a 
delightfully  artless  attempt  to  secure  some  recognition  for 
himself,    but    only   draws   down    a   reproof.     The   Master's 
relations  with   this   vain,   impulsive,   good-hearted    disciple 
often  remind  one  of  those  subsisting  between  Dr.  Johnson 
and  Goldsmith. 

2  T'ai  Po  was  the  direct  heir  to  his  father's  throne,  but 
knowing  that  the  latter  wished  to  be  succeeded  by  his  youngest 
son  (the  father  of  the  future  Wen  Wang,  the  virtual  founder 
of  the  Chou  dynasty),  he  went  into  voluntary  exile  among 
the  barbarous  tribes  of  the  south,  but  kept  the  motives  of  his 
conduct  to  himself,  and  thus  obtained  no  credit  for  his  self- 
sacrifice. 


78    CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS 

In  the  Emperor  Yii 1  I  find  no  loophole  for 
censure.  His  own  food  and  drink  were  plain,  but 
his  offerings  to  the  ancestral  spirits  showed 
extreme  piety.  His  own  garments  were  poor,  but 
his  robes  and  cap  of  state  were  extremely  fine. 
His  own  dwelling  was  humble,  but  he  spent  all  his 
strength  on  the  construction  of  public  canals  and 
water-courses.  I  find  no  loophole  for  censure  in  Yii. 

After  the  word  had  gone  forth,  Hui  was  never 
backward  in  his  deeds. 

The  Master  speaking  of  Yen  Yuan  said  :  Ah, 
what  a  loss  !  I  used  to  see  him  ever  progressing 
and  never  coming  to  a  standstill. 

The  Master  said  :  Yu,  I  fancy,  is  a  man  who 
would  stand  up,  dressed  in  shabby  garments 
quilted  with  hemp,  among  people  attired  in  furs 
of  fox  and  badger,  and  not  be  ashamed.  "  Hating 
none  and  courting  none,  how  can  he  be  other  than 
good  ?  "  2 — As  Tzu  Lu  kept  constantly  humming 
over  this  line,  the  Master  said  :  This  rule  of  con- 
duct is  not  enough  by  itself  to  constitute  goodness. 

1  The  "  Great  Yii,"  who  in  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Yao 
laboured  incessantly  for  eight  years  to  control  the  disastrous 
inundations  of  the  Yellow  River,  himself  became  Emperor 
after  the  death  of  Yao's  successor  Shun,  and  founded  the  Hsia 
dynasty  (2205-1766  B.C.). 

2  A  quotation  from    the  Book  of  Poetry,  a  collection  of 
some   300  ancient  ballads  said  to  have  been  selected  and 
arranged   by   Confucius  himself,   and   hence  raised   to   the 
dignity  of  a  "  classic." 


CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS     79 

The  Master  said  :  None  of  those  who  accom- 
panied me  on  the  journey  to  the  states  of  Ch'en 
and  Ts'ai  come  to  learn  from  me  now.  1  Dis- 
tinguished for  their  virtuous  conduct  were  Yen 
Yuan,  Min  Tzu-ch'ien,  Jan  Po-niu  and  Chung 
Kung  ;  for  their  skill  in  speaking,  Tsai  Wo  and 
Tzu  Kung  ;  for  their  administrative  powers, 
Jan  Yu  and  Chi  Lu  ;  for  their  literary  attain- 
ments, Tzu  Yu  and  Tzu  Hsia. 

Hui  does  not  help  me  * — he  takes  such  delight 
in  everything  I  say. 

What  noble  piety  8  is  that  of  Min  Tzu-ch'ien  ! 
Other  men  speak  of  him  in  exactly  the  same 
terms  as  his  own  parents  and  his  own  brethren. 

When  Yen  Yuan  died,  the  Master  wept  with 

1  This  must  have  been  said  by  Confucius  after  his  return 
from  exile,  when  many  of  his  followers  were  dead  or  in  other 
parts  of  the  Empire.     Ch'en  and  Ts'ai  are  particularly  men- 
tioned because  it  was  on  the  road  between  these  two  small 
states  that  he  met  with  the  most  perilous  adventure  of  his 
life,  being  surrounded  by  hostile  troops  and  cut  off  from  all 
supplies  for  the  space  of  seven  days  (see  p.  115).      It  is  not 
quite  clear  whether  the  next  sentence  should  not  be  taken  as 
a  note  added  by  the  compiler,  giving  the  names  of  those  who 
wore  with  the  Master  on  this  journey. 

2  By  criticism  or  questioning.     Cf.  p.  71. 

3  On  hsiao,  occurring  in   another  treatise,  Mr.  Ku  Hung- 
ming  has  the  following  note  :    "  The  word  in  the  text  does  not 
mean  merely  a  filial  son,  but  has  the  meaning  of  the  Latin 
'  pius  ' — pious  in  its  full  sense,  reverential  to  God,   dutiful 
to  parents,  good,  faithful  and  orderly  in  all  the  relations  of 
life." 


80    CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS 

passionate  grief,  so  that  those  who  were  with  him 
said  :  Master,  your  sorrow  is  too  passionate. — Is 
it  too  passionate  ?  he  replied.  Whose  death  should 
be  a  cause  for  violent  grief,  if  not  this  man's  ? 

On  one  occasion  there  were  standing  in  attend- 
ance on  the  Master  Min  Tzu,  looking  gentle  and 
mild  ;  Tzu  Lu,  looking  upright  and  soldierly  ; 
Jan  Yu  and  Tzu  Kung,  looking  frank  and  affable. 
The  Master  was  pleased.  "  A  man  like  Yu,"  he 
remarked,  "  will  not  come  by  a  natural  death."  ' 

The  Master  said  :  Why  is  Yu  playing  his  martial 
music  at  my  door  ? — The  disciples  began  to  lose 
their  respect  for  Tzu  Lu,  whereupon  the  Master 
said  :  Yu  has  ascended  the  steps  of  the  temple, 
though  he  has  not  yet  reached  the  inner  sanctuary. 

Tzu  Kung  asked  which  was  the  man  of  greater 
worth,  Shih  or  Shang.  The  Master  replied  : 
Shih  exceeds  and  Shang  falls  short. — Then  Shih 
is  the  better  of  the  two  ? — The  Master  said  :  To 
exceed  is  as  bad  as  to  fall  short. 

1  "  This  prediction  was  verified.  When  Confucius  re- 
turned to  Lu  from  Wei,  he  left  Tzu  Lu  and  Tzu  Kao  engaged 
there  in  official  service.  Troubles  arose.  News  came  to 
Lu,  B.C.  479,  that  a  revolution  was  in  progress  in  Wei,  and 
when  Confucius  heard  it,  he  said,  '  Ch'ai  will  come  here,  but 
Yu  will  die.'  So  it  turned  out.  When  Tzu  Kao  saw  that 
matters  were  desperate  he  made  his  escape,  but  Tzii  Lu 
would  not  forsake  the  chief  who  had  treated  him  well.  He 
threw  himself  into  the  m616e  and  was  slain." — LEGGE,  Life 
of  Confucius. 


CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS     81 

The  head  of  the  Chi  clan  was  already  richer 
than  Chou  Kung,  yet  Ch'iu  kept  levying  taxes 
for  him  and  adding  to  his  wealth. — He  is  no 
disciple  of  mine,  said  the  Master.  My  children, 
you  may  beat  the  drum  and  attack  him. 1 

The  Master  said  :  Hui  reaches  the  verge  of 
perfection,  yet  he  is  often  in  great  want.  Tz'u 
does  not  resign  himself  to  the  will  of  Heaven,  yet 
his  worldly  goods  continue  to  increase.  His 
judgments,  however,  frequently  hit  the  mark. 

Tzu  Lu  asked  if  he  should  at  once  put  the  pre- 
cepts which  he  heard  into  practice. — The  Master 
said  :  There  are  your  father  and  elder  brothers 
to  consult  first ;  why  should  you  be  so  impatient 
to  act  on  what  you  hear  ? — Jan  Yu  asked  the 
same  question,  and  the  Master  said  :  Yes,  act 
at  once  according  to  the  instruction  that  is  given 
to  you. — Kung-hsi  Hua  then  said  :  When  Yu 
asked  if  he  should  put  the  precepts  which  he 
heard  into  practice,  you  replied,  Sir,  that  he  had 
his  father  and  elder  brothers  to  consult  first. 
When  Ch'iu  asked  the  same  question,  you  said  : 

1  This  was  tho  disciple  by  whose  agency  Confucius  waa 
finally  restored  to  Lu.  But  Confucius  was  the  last  man  to 
let  private  considerations  stand  in  tho  way  when  public 
interests  were  involved  and  a  crying  evil  had  to  be  redressed. 
"  Beating  the  drum  "  has  no  reference,  as  Legge  thinks,  to 
"  the  practice  of  executing  criminals  in  the  market-place." 
It  was  simply  tho  recognised  signal  in  warfare  for  advancing 
to  the  attack,  gongs  being  used  to  sound  tho  retreat. 

6 


82    CONFUCIUS'  ESTIMATE  OF  OTHERS 

"  Act  at  once  according  to  the  instruction  that 
is  given  to  you."  Now  I  am  puzzled,  and  beg 
for  an  explanation. — The  Master  replied  :  Ch'iu  is 
apt  to  hang  back,  therefore  I  press  him  on.  Yu  has 
eagerness  enoughfor  two,  therefore  I  hold  him  back. 

Chi  Tzu-jan  l  asked  if  Chung  Yu  and  Jan 
Ch'iu  could  be  termed  great  ministers.  The 
Master  said :  I  thought  you  had  something 
extraordinary  to  ask  about,  and  now  it  turns 
out  to  be  a  question  about  Yu  and  Ch'iu.  What 
men  call  a  great  minister  is  one  who  serves  his 
prince  according  to  the  principles  of  truth  and 
virtue,  and  when  that  is  impossible,  resigns. 
Yu  and  Ch'iu,  however,  can  only  be  termed 
ordinary  officials. — Which  is  as  much  as  to  say  that 
they  will  always  obediently  follow  their  master's 
will  ? — The  Master  replied  :  They  would  not  follow 
him  so  far  as  to  commit  parricide  or  regicide. 

The  Master  said  :  Yu  is  the  man  to  settle  a  long 
litigation  in  a  few  words. 

Tzu  Kung  was  fond  of  weighing  other  men's 
merits  and  defects.  The  Master  said  :  Surely 
Tz'u  must  be  a  very  great  sage  !  Personally,  I 
have  no  time  for  this. 

1  A  member  of  the  ambitious  family  which  was  scheming 
to  get  the  whole  power  of  the  dukedom  into  its  own  hands. 
The  two  disciples  here  mentioned  had  recently  been  enlisted 
in  its  service,  and  Chi  Tzu-jan  is  anxious  to  find  out  how  far 
they  can  be  relied  upon  in  case  of  need.  Confucius  sees 
through  his  nefarious  designs. 


CONFUCIUS   ON  HIMSELF 

The  Master  :  I  will  not  be  grieved  that  other 
men  do  not  know  me  :  I  will  be  grieved  that  I  do 
not  know  other  men. 

At  fifteen,  my  mind  was  bent  on  learning.  At 
thirty,  I  stood  firm.  At  forty,  I  was  free  from 
delusions.  At  fifty,  I  understood  the  laws  of 
Providence.  At  sixty,  my  ears  were  attentive  to 
the  truth.  At  seventy,  I  could  follow  the  prompt- 
ings of  my  heart  without  overstepping  the  mean. 

Tzu  Kung  was  for  doing  away  with  the  cus- 
tomary sacrifice  of  a  sheep  on  the  first  day  of  the 
month.  The  Master  said  :  Ah,  Tz'n,  you  grudge  the 
loss  of  a  sheep,  but  I  grudge  the  loss  of  a  ceremony. 

The  Master  said  :  In  any  hamlet  of  a  dozen 
houses  you  will  surely  find  men  as  honest  and 
conscientious  as  myself,  though  they  may  not  bo 
so  devoted  to  ethical  study. 

The  Master  having    gone  to  visit  Nan  Tzu,1 

1  Tho  wife  of  the  Duke  of  Wei,  notorious  for  her  intrigues, 
and  even  accused  of  incest.  Needless  to  say,  Chinese  com- 
mentators are  at  great  pains  to  explain  away  tliis  incident  in 
the  life  of  the  sage. 

83 


84  CONFUCIUS   ON   HIMSELF 

Tzu  Lu  was  displeased.  Thereupon  Confucius 
swore  a  solemn  oath,  saying  :  In  whatsoever  I 
have  sinned,  may  I  be  abominable  in  the  sight 
of  God  ! 

The  Master  said  :  My  function  is  to  indicate 
rather  than  to  originate.  Regarding  antiquity 
as  I  do  with  trust  and  affection,  I  would  venture 
to  compare  myself  with  our  ancient  patriarch 
P'eng  Tsu.1 

The  unpretentious  hiving  of  wisdom,  patient 
self-cultivation,  and  untiring  instruction  of  others 
— to  which  of  these  can  I  make  any  claim  ? 

The  failure  to  cultivate  virtue,  the  failure  to 
examine  and  analyse  what  I  have  learnt,  the 
inability  to  move  towards  righteousness  after 
being  shown  the  way,  the  inability  to  correct  my 
faults — these  are  the  causes  of  my  grief. 

Alas  !  what  a  falling-off  is  here  !  Long  is  it 
since  I  dreamt  of  Chou  Kung.2 

1  A  grandson  of  the  legendary  Emperor  Chuan  Hsu.     He 
is  said  to  have  been  over  800  years  old  when  ho  disappeared 
into  the  west  in  the  eleventh  century  B.C.     The  last  words 
in  the  text  are  taken  by  some  to  mean  "  our  patriarchs  Lao 
Tzu  and  P'eng  Tsu  " — Lao  Tzii  being  the  founder  of  Taoism, 
who  is  also,  by  the  way,  alleged  to  have  disappeared  at  an 
advanced  age  into  the  west. 

2  One  of  the  most  revered  names  in  Chinese  history.      The 
younger  brother  of  Wu  Wang,  he  helped  materially  by  his 
wise  counsels  to  establish  the  dynasty  of  Chou.     He  drew 
tip  a  legal  code,  purified  the  morals  of  the  people,  and  devoted 


CONFUCIUS    ON    HIMSELF  85 

There  is  no  one,  from  the  man  who  brings  me 
dried  meat  as  payment  upwards,  to  whom  I 
have  refused  my  instruction. 

I  do  not  expound  my  teaching  to  any  who  are 
not  eager  to  learn  ;  I  do  not  help  out  any  one  who 
is  not  anxious  to  explain  himself  ;  if,  after  being 
shown  one  corner  of  a  subject,  a  man  cannot  go  on 
to  discover  the  other  three,  I  do  not  repeat  the 
lesson. 

If  the  pursuit  of  riches  were  a  commendable 
pursuit,  I  would  join  in  it,  even  if  I  had  to 
become  a  chariot-driver  for  the  purpose.  But 
seeing  that  it  is  not  a  commendable  pursuit,  I 
engage  in  those  which  are  more  to  my  taste.1 

The  Duke  of  She  questioned  Tzu  Lu  about 
Confucius.  Tzu  Lu  made  no  reply.  The  Master 
said  to  him  afterwards  :  Why  did  you  not  say  : 
"  He  is  a  man  whose  zeal  for  self -improvement 

himself  wholly  to  the  welfare  of  the  State.  Confucius  in  the 
reforming  zeal  of  his  younger  days  had  an  ardent  desire  to 
see  the  principles  and  institutions  of  Chou  Kung  brought  into 
general  practice. 

1  Legge  and  others  (including  even  Mr.  Ku  Hung-ming) 
make  the  sense  out  to  be  :  "  If  there  were  any  prospect  of  my 
being  successful  in  the  search  for  riches,  I  would  not  hesitate 
to  pursue  them  by  any  means  in  my  power."  Thus  trans- 
lated, the  Master's  saying  is  grotesquely  at  variance  with  the 
whole  trend  of  his  conduct  and  the  essential  spirit/of  his 
teaching.  Curiously  enough,  too,  there  is  nothing  in  the 
Chinese  itself,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  to  justify  such  a  startling 
interpretation. 


86  CONFUCIUS    ON   HIMSELF 

is  such  that  he  forgets  to  eat ;  whose  happiness 
in  this  pursuit  is  so  great  that  he  forgets  his 
troubles  and  does  not  perceive  old  age  stealing 
upon  him  "  ? 

The  Master  said  :  In  me,  knowledge  is  not 
innate.  I  am  but  one  who  loves  antiquity  and 
is  earnest  in  the  study  of  it. 

If  I  am  walking  with  two  other  men,  each  of 
them  will  serve  as  my  teacher.  I  will  pick  out 
the  good  points  of  the  one  and  imitate  them,  and 
the  bad  points  of  the  other  and  correct  them 
in  myself. 

My  disciples,  do  you  think  that  I  have  any 
secrets  ?  I  have  no  secrets  from  you.  It  is  my 
way  to  do  nothing  without  communicating  it 
to  you,  my  disciples. 

There  are  men,  I  daresay,  who  act  rightly 
without  knowing  the  reason  why,  but  I  am  not 
one  of  them.  Having  heard  much,  I  sift  out  the 
good  and  practise  it ;  having  seen  much,  I  retain 
it  in  my  memory.  This  is  the  second  order  of 
wisdom.1 

1  That  is  to  say,  the  wisest  men  are  those  who  act 
intuitively,  without  having  to  find  their  way  by  any  con- 
scious mental  process.  Confucius  disclaims  any  such  in- 
tuitive perception  of  right  and  wrong  in  his  own  case,  and 
confesses  that  he  is  obliged  to  rely  largely  on  objective 
experience,  as  acted  upon  by  the  critical  and  receptive  powers 
of  his  mind.  The  saying  has  a  distinctly  Taoist  flavour; 


CONFUCIUS    ON   HIMSELF  87 

In  literary  accomplishments  I  am  perhaps 
equal  to  other  men  ;  but  I  have  not  yet  succeeded 
in  exhibiting  the  conduct  of  the  princely  man  in 
my  own  person. 

To  divine  wisdom  and  perfect  virtue  I  can 
lay  no  claim.  All  that  can  be  said  of  me  is  that 
I  never  falter  in  the  course  which  I  pursue  and 
am  unwearying  in  my  instruction  of  others — 
this  and  nothing  more. — Kung-hsi  Hua  said  : 
But  those  are  just  the  qualities  that  we,  your 
disciples,  are  unable  to  acquire. 

The  Master  being  grievously  sick,  Tzu  Lu 
proposed  the  offering  up  of  a  prayer. — Is  there 
a  precedent  for  this  ?  asked  the  Master. — Tzu 
Lu  replied  :  There  is.  In  the  Eulogies  l  it  is 
written  :  "  We  pray  unto  you,  O  spirits  of  Heaven 
and  Earth." — The  Master  said  :  My  prayers  began 
long  ago.2 

The  Master  was  passing  through  a  by-street 
when  a  man  of  the  district  shouted  :  Great  is 
Confucius  the  philosopher  !  Yet  for  all  his  wide 

1  It  is  not  known  exactly  what  these  were — a    collection 
of  prayers,  a  book  of  rituals  for  the  dead,  or  panegyrics  on 
the   departed. 

2  Confucius  speaks  of  prayer  in  the  sense  made  familiar  to 
us  by  Coleridge's  line  :    "  He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best." 
In  this  higher  sense  his  whole  life  had  been  one  long  prayer, 
and   ho   refuses   any   mediation   between   himself   and  God. 
Could  antagonism  to  the  ritualistic  spirit  be  carried  much 
farther  than  this  ? 


88  CONFUCIUS    ON   HIMSELF 

learning,  he  has  nothing  which  can  bring  him 
fame. — On  hearing  this,  the  Master  turned  to  his 
disciples  and  said  :  What  shall  I  take  up  ? 
Shall  I  take  up  charioteering  or  shall  I  take  up 
archery  ?  I  will  take  up  charioteering  ! 

The  Master  said  :  The  ancient  rites  prescribe 
linen  as  the  material  for  a  ceremonial  cap,  but 
nowadays  silk  is  used  as  being  more  economical. 
In  this  matter  I  fall  in  with  the  general  custom. 
According  to  the  ancient  rites,  the  Prince  is  to 
be  saluted  from  below  the  dai's,  but  nowadays 
the  salutation  takes  place  above.  This  is  pre- 
sumptuous, and  therefore,  though  infringing 
thereby  the  general  custom,  I  adopt  the  humbler 
position.1 

A  high  officer  asked  Tzu  Kung,  saying  :  Surely 
your  Master  is  a  divine  Prophet  ?  What  a 
variety  of  accomplishments  he  seems  to  possess  ! — 
Tzu  Kung  replied  :  Truly  he  must  be  a  Prophet, 
so  richly  has  he  been  endowed  by  God.  And  he 
has  also  perfected  himself  in  various  arts. — The 
Master,  being  told  of  this,  said  :  Does  His  Ex- 

1  This  saying  well  illustrates  the  Master's  attitude  in 
regard  to  ceremonies.  He  was  no  stickler  for  mere  outward 
conformity  to  rule,  so  long  as  the  inner  meaning  of  the 
ceremony  was  not  affected.  Now  the  salutation  of  the 
Prince  was  simply  intended  to  be  a  way  of  expressing  heart- 
felt loyalty  and  respect,  and  it  was  only  because  the  new 
position  seemed  less  respectful  that  Confucius  opposed  the 
change. 


CONFUCIUS    ON   HIMSELF  89 

cellency  really  know  me  now  for  what  I  am  ? 
Being  of  low  condition  as  a  boy,  I  did  become 
skilled  in  various  arts — but  these  are  base  accom- 
plishments after  all.  If  asked  whether  the 
higher  type  of  man  has  many  such  accomplish- 
ments, I  should  say,  Not  many.1 

The  Master  said  :  Am  I  possessed  of  true 
knowledge  ?  Not  so.  But  if  an  ignorant  fellow 
from  the  lower  class  comes  to  me  with  a  question, 
I  will  discuss  the  subject  from  end  to  end,  and  set 
it  fully  before  him. 

Tzu  Kung  said  to  Confucius :  If  you  had  a 
lovely  jewel,  would  you  hide  it  away  in  a  casket, 
or  would  you  try  to  sell  it  for  a  good  price  ? — 
The  Master  replied  :  Oh,  certainly  I  would  sell  it, 
but  I  would  wait  until  a  price  was  offered.8 

The  Master  said  :  Out  of  doors,  to  tender 
faithful  service  to  prince  and  ministers ;  at 
home,  to  be  duteous  towards  father  and  elder 
brothers  ;  to  observe  the  rites  of  mourning  with 

1  See  note  on  p.  44. 

2  Question   and  answer   are   of   course  parabolical.      The 
enthusiastic  young  disciple  thinks  that  his  Master,  in  taking 
no  steps  to  obtain  official  employment,  is  guilty  of  "  hiding 
his  jewel  in  a  casket,"  or,  as  wo  should  say,  "  his  light  under 
a  bushel."     Confucius,  however,  had  a  great  sense  of  the 
responsibility  of  office,  and  was  loth  to  thrust  himself  forward 
uninvited.     His  chance  came  at  last  after  fifteen  years  of 
waiting,   when  Duko  Ting  appointed  him  governor  of  the 
town  of  Chung-tu. 


90  CONFUCIUS    ON   HIMSELF 

the  utmost  care  ;    to  avoid  being  overcome  with 
wine  : — which  of  these  virtues  have  I  ? 

In  matters  pertaining  to  ceremonies  and  music, 
the  ancients  were  more  or  less  uncivilised  in 
comparison  with  the  refinement  of  a  later  age. 
Nevertheless,  in  practice  I  take  the  earlier  period 
as  my  guide.1 

As  an  arbiter  in  litigation  I  am  no  better  than 
other  men.  But  surely  the  grand  object  to 
achieve  is  that  there  shall  be  no  litigation  at  all.2 

Wei-sheng  Mou,s  addressing  Confucius,  said  : 
Ch'iu,  why  is  it  you  keep  hopping  about  thus 
from  place  to  place  ?  Is  it  not  in  order  to  show 
off  your  fine  rhetoric  ? — Confucius  replied  :  I 
do  not  allow  myself  to  indulge  in  fine  rhetoric  ; 
no,  it  is  because  I  consider  obstinacy  a  fault.4 

The  Master  said  :     There  are  none  who  know 

1  Another   proof,    if     one    were   needed,    that    Confucius' 
instincts  were  all  for  simplicity  and  not  elaboration  in  cere- 
monies. 

2  Said  by  Confucius  when  he  was  Minister  of    Justice  in 
Lu. 

3  Evidently  an  older  man,  from  his  vise  of    the  personal 
name,  not  to  speak  of  his  disrespectful  tone. 

*  Confucius,  like  other  great  men,  was  not  exempt  from 
the  usual  fate  of  seeing  his  actions  derided  and  his  motives 
misunderstood.  Here  we  have  a  gibe  thrown  at  his  wander- 
ing from  state  to  state,  for  the  purpose,  it  is  insinuated,  of 
making  a  living  by  his  wits.  The  answer  is,  that  to  have 
remained  in  Lu  or  any  other  state  where  he  was  plainly 
not  wanted,  would  have  been  merely  stupid  persistency. 


CONFUCIUS    ON   HIMSELF  91 

me  tor  what  I  am. — Tzu  Kung  said  :  How  is  it, 
Sir,  that  none  know  you  ? — The  Master  replied  : 
I  make  no  complaint  against  Heaven,  neither  do 
I  blame  my  fellow-men.  In  the  study  of  virtue 
I  begin  at  the  bottom  and  tend  upwards.1 
Surely  Heaven  knows  me  for  what  I  am. 

Tz'u,  do  you  look  upon  me  as  a  man  who  has 
studied  and  retained  a  mass  of  various  knowledge  ? 
— I  do,  he  replied.  Am  I  wrong  ? — You  are 
wrong,  said  the  Master.  All  my  knowledge  is 
strung  on  one  connecting  thread.2 

I  used  to  spend  whole  days  without  food  and 
whole  nights  without  sleep,  in  order  to  meditate. 

1  This  accounts  for  men  taking  no  notice  of  him.      Most 
so-called  sages  start  with   grandiose  ideals   and  high-flown 
utterances,  in  order  to  attract  attention. 

2  This  is  rightly  considered  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
of  the  Master's  sayings,  because  it  gives  the  clue  to  his  whole 
philosophy    and   view    of   life.     The    "  connecting   thread," 
as  we  learn  from  another  passage  (see  p.  118),  is  simply  the 
moral  life,  which  consists  in  being  true  to  oneself  and  good  to 
one's   neighbour.     Confucius    wished    to    impress   upon    his 
disciple  that  he  was  no  mere  amasser  of  knowledge  nor  lover 
of  learning  for  learning's  sake.     The  one  thing  necessary, 
in  his  eyes,  was  to  be  able  to  lead,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the 
word,  a  moral  life,  and  this  was  the  real  object  of  all  learning, 
the  end  and  aim  of  all  knowledge.     Throughout  the  Analects, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  the  usual  word  for  "  learning  "  always 
means  or  implies  the  study  of  virtue,  the  striving  after  self- 
improvement.     Like  Socrates,  Confucius  was  purely  a  moral 
philosopher,   and  would  certainly  have  rejected  the  sharp 
distinction  wo  draw  nowadays  between  mental  and  moral 
science; 


92  CONFUCIUS   ON   HIMSELF 

But  I  made  no  progress.     Study,  I  found,  was 
better. 

Pi  Hsi l  sent  an  invitation  to  Confucius,  and 
the  Master  wished  to  go.  Tzu  Lu,  however,  said  : 
Once  upon  a  time,  Sir,  I  heard  you  say  that  the 
nobler  sort  of  man  would  not  enter  into  intimacy 
with  one  who  laid  himself  out  to  do  wrong.  Now 
Pi  Hsi  has  raised  the  standard  of  rebellion  in 
Chung-mou.  How  can  you  think  of  going 
thither  ? — True,  replied  the  Master.  Those  were 
my  words.  But  is  there  not  a  saying  :  "  The 
hard  may  be  rubbed  without  losing  its  substance  ; 
the  white  may  be  steeped  without  losing  its 
purity  "  ?  Am  I  then  a  bitter  gourd — fit  only 
to  be  hung  up  and  not  eaten  ? 

1  A  rebellious  official  in  the  Chin  State.  On  more  than  one 
occasion  in  his  career,  Confucius  made  it  plain  that  he  de- 
clined to  be  bound  by  narrow  convention  or  hampered  by  the 
fear  of  what  people  might  say  of  him.  To  keep  clear  of  bad 
associates  was  no  doubt  an  excellent  principle,  but  Confucius 
may  have  seen  some  justification  for  Pi  Hsi's  course  of  action, 
and  in  any  case  he  was  no  longer  of  an  age  to  be  easily  cor- 
rupted by  evil  communications.  Knowing  that  rules  were 
never  meant  to  be  so  rigid  as  to  admit  of  no  exceptions,  he 
felt  it  his  primary  duty  to  go  where  he  could  do  good.  Cf. 
the  visit  to  Nan  Tzu  (p.  83),  the  mere  idea  of  which  would 
have  horrified  an  ordinary  teacher  of  morality. 


MISCELLANEOUS  SAYINGS 

The  Master  said  :  To  learn,  and  to  practise 
on  occasion  what  one  has  learnt — is  this  not  true 
pleasure  ?  The  coming  of  a  friend  from  a  far-off 
land — is  this  not  true  joy  ? 

Make  conscientiousness  and  sincerity  your 
grand  object.  Have  no  friends  not  equal  to 
yourself.  If  you  have  done  wrong,  be  not 
ashamed  to  make  amends. 

Observe  the  bent  of  a  man's  will  when  his 
father  is  alive,  and  his  actions  after  his  father  is 
dead.  If  during  the  three  years  of  mourning  he 
does  not  swerve  from  his  father's  principles,  he 
may  be  pronounced  a  truly  filial  son. 

The  Odes  1  are  three  hundred  in  number,  but 
their  purport  may  be  summed  up  in  a  word  : — 
Have  no  depraved  thoughts. 

1  The  rather  inappropriate  name  given  by  foreigners  to 
the  songs  or  ballads  contained  in  the  Shih  Ching  or  Book  of 
Poetry  (see  note  on  p.  78).  Confucius  is  said  to  have  selected 
these  three  hundred  odd  pieces  from  a  much  larger  pre-existing 
mass  of  material,  but  his  language  here  hardly  strikes  us  as 
that  likely  to  be  used  by  a  man  speaking  of  his  own  com- 
pilation. 


94  MISCELLANEOUS    SAYINGS 

Observe  a  man's  actions ;  scrutinise  his 
motives  ;  take  note  of  the  things  that  give  him 
pleasure.  How  then  can  he  hide  from  you  what 
he  really  is  ? 

Acquire  new  knowledge  whilst  thinking  over 
the  old,, and  you  may  become  a  teacher  of  others. 

The  higher  type  of  man  is  not  like  a  vessel  which 
is  designed  for  some  'special  use.1 

Study  without  thought  is  vain  ;  thought  with- 
out study  is  perilous. 

Absorption  in  the  study  of  the  supernatural 
is  most  harmful. 

Yu,  shall  I  tell  you  what  true  knowledge  is  ? 
When  you  know,  to  know  that  you  know,  and 
when  you  do  not  know,  to  know  that  you  do 
not  know — that  is  true  knowledge. 

Tzu  Chang  was  studying  with  a  view  to  official 
preferment.  The  Master  said  to  him  :  Among 
the  various  things  you  hear  said,  reserve  your 
judgment  on  those  which  seem  doubtful,  and 
give  cautious  utterance  to  the  rest  :  then  you  will 
seldom  fall  into  error.  Among  the  various 
things  you  see  done,  set  aside  those  which  seem 
dangerous,  and  cautiously  put  the  others  into 

1  That  is  to  say,  he  is  not  limited  in  his  functions  like  a 
vessel  or  implement,  not  "  borne  "  or  a  man  of  one  idea. 
Cf.  note  on  p.  71. 


MISCELLANEOUS   SAYINGS  95 

practice  :  then  you  will  seldom  have  occasion  for 
repentance.  If  you  seldom  err  in  your  speech, 
and  seldom  have  to  repent  of  your  actions, 
official  preferment  will  come  of  itself. 

The  Master  said  :  I  do  not  see  how  a  man 
without  sincerity  can  be  good  for  anything.  How 
can  a  cart  or  carriage  be  made  to  go  without 
yoke  or  cross-bar  ? 

To  sacrifice  to  a  spirit  with  which  you  have 
nothing  to  do,  is  mere  servility. 

To  shirk  your  duty  when  you  see  it  before 
you,  shows  want  of  moral  courage. 

Some  one  inquired  as  to  the  meaning  of  the 
Great  Sacrifice.  The  Master  said :  I  do  not 
know.  He  who  knew  its  meaning  would  find  it 
as  easy  to  govern  the  Empire  as  to  look  upon  this 
(pointing  to  his  palm).1 

Wang-sun  Chia  *  asked,  saying  :  What  means 
the  adage,  "  Better  be  civil  to  the  kitchen-god 
than  to  the  god  of  the  inner  sanctum  "  ? — The 

1  Every  ceremonial  rite  being  symbolical  of  some  portion 
of  the  world's  harmony,  and  the  Great  Sacrifice  being  the 
head  and  fount  as  it  were  of  all  the  rest,  it  follows  that  the 
man  who  could  penetrate  its  profound  symbolism  would  have 
the  whole  system  of  morals  and  government  unrolled  before 
his  eyes. 

2  Prime  Minister  of  the  Wei  State,  who  suspected  Confucius 
of  coming  to  seek  office,  and  took  this  means  of  hinting  that 
the  real  power  lay  with  himself  and  not  with  the  Duke. 


96  MISCELLANEOUS    SAYINGS 

Master  replied  :  The  adage  is  false.     He  who  sins 
against  Heaven  can  rely  on  the  intercession  of  none. 

The  Master  said  :  He  who  serves  his  prince 
with  all  the  proper  ceremony  will  be  accounted 
by  men  a  flatterer. 

It  is  bootless  to  discuss  accomplished  facts,  to 
protest  against  things  past  remedy,  to  find  fault 
with  things  bygone. 

How  am  I  to  regard  one  who  has  rank  with- 
out liberality,  who  performs  ceremonies  without 
reverence,  who  approaches  the  rites  of  mourning 
without  sorrow  ? 

Men's  faults  are  characteristic.1  It  is  by 
observing  a  man's  faults  that  one  may  come  to 
know  his  virtues. 

Having  heard  the  True  Way  in  themorning,what 
matters  it  if  one  should  come  to  die  at  night  ? 

The  scholar  who  is  bent  on  studying  the 
principles  of  virtue,  yet  is  ashamed  of  bad  clothes 
and  coarse  food,  is  not  yet  fit  to  receive  instruction. 

Instead  of  being  concerned  that  you  have  no 
office,  be  concerned  to  think  how  you  may  fit  your- 
self for  office.  Instead  of  being  concerned  that  you 
are  not  known,  seek  to  be  worthy  of  being  known. 

1  After  some  hesitation,  I  have  adopted  this  clever  render- 
ing of  Mr.  Ku  Hung-ming,  as  being  the  only  one  that  fits  well 
with  the  next  sentence. 


MISCELLANEOUS    SAYINGS  97 

When  you  see  a  good  man,  think  of  emulating 
him  ;  when  you  see  a  bad  man,  examine  your 
own  heart. 

The  ancients  hesitated  to  give  their  thoughts 
utterance  :  they  were  afraid  that  their  actions 
might  not  be  equal  to  their  words. 

Few  are  those  who  err  on  the  side  of  self- 
restraint.  l 

Virtue  cannot  live  in  solitude  :  neighbours 
are  sure  to  grow  up  around  it.2 

Chi  Wen  Tzu 3  used  to  reflect  thrice  before  he 
acted.  When  told  of  this,  the  Master  said : 
Twice  would  do. 

The  Master  said  :  Alas  !  I  have  never  met  a 
man  who  could  see  his  own  faults  and  arraign 
himself  at  the  bar  of  his  own  conscience. 

Tzu  Hua  having  been  sent  on  a  mission  to  the 
Ch'i  State,  Jan  Ch'iu  begged  for  a  gift  of  grain 
for  his  mother.  The  Master  said:  Give  her  a 
peck. — The  disciple  asking  for  more,  he  said  : 

1  A  few  other  renderings  of  this  sentence  will  illustrate  at 
once  the  elasticity  of  the  Chinese  language,  and  the  difficulty  of 
making  it  flow  into  European  moulds. — LBQGE  :  "  The  cautious 
seldom  err."  WADE  :  "It  seldom  happens  that  a  man  errs 
through  excess  of  moderation."  JENNINGS:  "  Those  who  keep 
within  restraints  are  seldom  losers."  Ku  HUNQ-MING  :  "  He 
who  wants  little  seldom  goes  wrong." 

*  I.e.  virtue  begets  virtue. 

3  A  member  of  the  great  Chi  family,  who  held  office  in  Lu. 

7 


98  MISCELLANEOUS   SAYINGS 

Give  her  then  a  bushel. — But  Jan  Ch'iu  eventually 
gave  her  as  much  as  five  hundredweight  of  grain. 
Then  the  Master  rebuked  him,  saying  :  When 
Ch'ih  went  to  the  Ch'i  State,  he  was  conveyed 
by  a  team  of  sleek  horses  and  was  wearing  costly 
fur  garments.  Now  I  have  heard  that  the 
princely  man  succours  the  distressed,  but  will  not 
add  to  the  opulence  of  the  wealthy. 

Yuan  Ssu,  having  been  made  governor  of  a 
district,  was  presented  with  nine  hundred 
measures  of  grain.1  He  declined  them.  The 
Master  said  :  Do  not  decline  them.  May  they 
not  be  distributed  among  the  villages  and  town- 
ships of  your  neighbourhood  ? 

The  Master  said  :  Who  can  go  out  of  a  house 
except  by  the  door  ?  In  life,  why  not  pass 
likewise  through  the  door  of  virtue  ?  a 

You  may  speak  of  higher  subjects  to  those 
who  rise  above  the  average  level  of  mankind,  but 
not  to  those  who  fall  below  it. 

With  coarse  food  to  eat,  water  to  drink,  and 
the  bended  arm  as  a  pillow,  happiness  may  still 
exist.  Wealth  and  rank  unrighteously  obtained 
seem  to  me  as  insubstantial  as  floating  clouds. 

The   inhabitants    of    Hu-hsiang   were    uncon- 

1  The  proper  allowance  for  an  officer  in  his  station. 

2  As  being,  in  the  end,  the  most  natural  and  least  trouble- 
some route  to  take. 


MISCELLANEOUS   SAYINGS  99 

versable  people,  and  when  a  young  man  from 
those  parts  came  to  see  Confucius,  the  disciples 
hesitated  to  let  him  in.  But  the  Master  said  : 
When  a  man  comes  to  me,  I  accept  him  at  his 
best,  not  at  his  worst.  Why  make  so  much  ado  ? 
When  a  man  washes  his  hands  before  paying  a 
visit,  and  you  receive  him  in  that  clean  state, 
you  do  not  thereby  stand  surety  for  his  always 
having  been  clean  in  the  past. 

The  Master  said  :  Is  virtue  then  so  remote  ? 
I  have  only  to  show  a  desire  for  virtue,  and  lo  ! 
it  is  here. 

The  Master  said  :  Prodigality  begets  arrogance,1 
parsimony  begets  niggardliness.  But  it  is  better 
to  be  niggardly  than  arrogant. 

Without  due  self-restraint,2  courtesy  becomes 
oppressive,  prudence  degenerates  into  timidity, 
valour  into  violence,  and  candour  into  rudeness. 

Love  of  daring  and  dread  of  poverty  lead  to 

1  It    is  impossible  to  find  an  exact    equivalent  for  this 
negative    expression    "  non-yieldingness,"     "  non-humility." 
But  the  dominant  idea  is  one  of  selfishness,  and  therefore  such 
renderings  as   "  insubordination  "    (Legge),    "  frowardness  " 
(Wade),  "  excess  "  (Ku  Hung-ming),  are  rather  wide  of  the 
mark. 

2  For  note  on  li,  see  p.  60.     Here  again  it  is  the  inner  sense 
of  moral  proportion  and  harmony,  which  prevents  any  quality 
from  being  carried  to  excess.     Not  a  translator  but  has  come 
to  grief  over  this  word,  though  Mr.  Ku  is  not  so  far  off  with 
"  judgment."     That,  however,   makes  of  it  an  intellectual 
principle  rather  than  what  it  realty  is — a  moral  sense. 


100         MISCELLANEOUS    SAYINGS 

sedition.  The  man  without  natural  virtue,  if 
pursued  by  the  hatred  of  society,  will  become 
a  desperado. 

If  a  man  is  proud  and  avaricious,  though  his 
other  qualities  may  embrace  all  that  was  fine  in 
the  character  of  Chou  Kung,  they  are  not  worth 
taking  into  account. 

It  is  not  easy  to  find  a  man  who  after  three  years 
of  self-cultivation  1  has  not  reached  happiness. 

He  who  is  out  of  office  should  not  meddle  in 
the  government. 

Hot-headedness  without  honesty ;  ignorance 
without  ingenuousness  ;  simplicity  without  sin- 
cerity : — such  characters  I  do  not  understand.2 

Pursue  the  study  of  virtue  as  though  you 
could  never  reach  your  goal,  and  were  afraid  of 
losing  the  ground  already  gained. 

The  Master  said  :  I  have  not  met  one  whose  love 
of  virtue  was  equal  to  his  love  of  sensual  beauty. 

Though  in  making  a  mound  I  should  stop  when 
but  one  more  basketful  of  earth  would  complete 
it,  the  fact  remains  that  I  Jiave  stopped.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  in  levelling  it  to  the  ground  I 

1  Literally,  "  learning."     See  notes  on  pp.  53  and  91. 

2  The  commentators  seem  right  in  their  explanation,  that 
a  man's  defects  are  usually  redeemed  by  certain  corresponding 
qualities ;   when  even  these  are  absent,  the  case  is  hopeless. 


MISCELLANEOUS    SAYINGS         101 

advance  my  work  by  but  one  basketful  at  a  time, 
the  fact  remains  that  I  am  advancing.1 

Alas  !  there  are  sprouting  crops  which  never 
come  into  ear.  There  are  others  which,  having 
come  into  ear,  never  ripen  into  grain. 

We  ought  to  have  a  wholesome  respect  for  our 
juniors.  Who  knows  but  that  by-and-by  they 
may  prove  themselves  equal  to  the  men  of  to-day  ? 
It  is  only  when  they  reach  the  age  of  forty  or 
fifty  without  distinguishing  themselves  that  we 
need  no  longer  be  afraid  of  them. 

Words  of  just  admonition  cannot  fail  to  com- 
mand a  ready  assent.  But  practical  reformation 
is  the  thing  that  really  matters.  Words  of 
kindly  advice  cannot  fail  to  please  the  listener. 
But  subsequent  meditation  on  them  is  the  thing 
that  really  matters.  I  can  make  nothing  of  the  man 
who  is  pleased  with  advice  but  will  not  meditate  on 
it,  who  assents  to  admonition  but  does  not  reform. 

A  great  army  may  be  robbed  of  its  leader,  but 
nothing  can  rob  one  poor  man  of  his  will. 

It  is  only  when  the  cold  season  comes  that  we 
know  the  pine  and  cypress  to  be  evergreens.2 

1  This  is  the  best  I  can  make  of  a  vexed  passage.      Legge's 
translation  is  poor,  but  he  is  right  with  regard  to  the  lesson 
intended — "  that  repeated    acquisitions    individually    small 
will  ultimately  amount  to  much,  and  that  the  learner  is  never 
to  give  over." 

2  Men  are  known  in  time  of  adversity. 


102         MISCELLANEOUS   SAYINGS 

Let  a  pupil  join  with  you  in  self-cultivation 
before  you  let  him  approach  the  general  truths 
of  philosophy,  but  let  him  approach  these  general 
truths  before  he  is  allowed  to  form  his  character 
for  good.  He  should  have  formed  his  character 
for  good  before  he  is  allowed  to  make  exceptions 
to  a  general  rule. 

When  Yen  Yuan  died,  the  Master  said  :  Alas  ! 
God  has  forsaken  me,  God  has  forsaken  me  ! 

On  the  death  of  Yen  Yuan,  the  disciples  wanted 
to  give  him  a  sumptuous  funeral,  but  the  Master 
said,  Better  not.1  Nevertheless,  the  disciples 
did  give  him  a  sumptuous  funeral,  whereupon  the 
Master  said  :  Hui  looked  upon  me  as  his  father, 
yet  I  have  not  been  able  to  treat  him  as  my  son. 
The  fault  is  not  in  me,  but  in  you,  my  disciples. 

Chi  Lu  inquired  concerning  men's  duty  to 
spirits.  The  Master  replied  :  Before  we  are 
able  to  do  our  duty  by  the  living,  how  can  we 
do  it  by  the  spirits  of  the  dead  ? — Chi  Lu  went 
on  to  inquire  about  death.  The  Master  said  : 

1  Because  the  family  was  very  poor  and  could  ill  afford 
to  bear  the  expense.  It  is  not  the  least  of  this  great  man's 
titles  to  fame  that  he  resolutely  opposed  the  tide  of  popular 
sentiment  in  this  matter,  and  could  see  the  iniquity  of  sacrific- 
ing the  living  to  the  dead,  even  when  the  funeral  of  his  dearly 
beloved  disciple  was  in  question.  The  moral  courage  of  such 
an  attitude  in  a  country  like  China,  where  religion  is  largely 
connected  with  the  propitiation  of  spirits,  can  hardly  be 
overestimated. 


MISCELLANEOUS   SAYINGS         103 

Before  we  know  what  life  is,  how  can  we  know 
what  death  is  ? 

Tzu  Chang  asked  a  question  about  clearness 
of  mental  vision.  The  Master  said  :  He  whose 
mind  is  proof  against  the  slow-soaking  poison 
of  slander  and  the  sharp  stings  of  calumny,  may 
be  called  clear-sighted,  and  far-seeing  as  well. 

The  Master  said  :  A  man  may  know  the  three 
hundred  odes  by  heart,  but  if  he  proves  himself 
incapable  when  given  a  post  in  the  government, 
or  cannot  make  a  speech  unaided  when  sent  on 
a  foreign  mission,  of  what  use  to  him  is  all  his 
learning  ? 

Tzu  Kung  asked,  saying  :  What  may  be  said 
of  a  man  who  is  beloved  by  all  his  fellow-towns- 
men ? — The  Master  replied  :  That  is  not  enough 
to  go  upon. — What  of  one  who  is  hated  by  all  his 
fellow-townsmen  ? — The  Master  replied  :  Neither 
is  that  enough  to  go  upon.  It  would  be  otherwise 
if,  among  his  fellow- townsmen,  the  good  loved 
him  and  the  wicked  hated  him. 

The  Master  said  :  A  good  man  must  have 
trained  the  people  for  seven  years  before  they  are 
fit  to  go  to  war. 

To  take  an  untrained  multitude  into  battle 
is  equivalent  to  throwing  them  away. 

In  a  well-governed  country,  speak  boldly  and 


104         MISCELLANEOUS    SAYINGS 

act  boldly.  In  a  country  where  lawlessness 
prevails,  let  your  actions  be  bold  but  your  speech 
tactful. 

It  is  harder  to  be  poor  without  murmuring, 
than  to  be  rich  without  arrogance. 

The  men  of  olden  times  who  studied  virtue 
had  only  their  own  improvement  in  view  ;  those 
who  study  it  now  have  an  eye  to  the  applause  of 
others. 

Refusal  to  instruct  one  who  is  competent  to 
learn  entails  the  waste  of  a  man.  Instruction  of 
one  who  is  incompetent  to  learn  entails  waste 
of  words.  The  wise  man  is  he  who  wastes  neither 
men  nor  words. 

Those  whose  care  extends  not  far  ahead  will 
find  their  troubles  near  at  hand. 

He  who  requires  much  from  himself  and  little 
from  others  will  be  secure  from  hatred. 

If  a  man  is  not  in  the  habit  of  asking,  "  What 
do  you  make  of  this  ?  what  do  you  make  of 
that  ?  "  I  can  make  nothing  of  him. 

Hopeless  indeed  is  the  case  of  those  who  can 
herd  together  all  day  long  without  once  letting 
their  conversation  reach  a  higher  plane,1  but 
are  content  to  bandy  smart  and  shallow  wit. 

1  Literally,   "  reach  righteousness." 


MISCELLANEOUS    SAYINGS          105 

When  a  man  is  generally  detested,  or  when 
he  is  generally  beloved,  closer  examination  is 
necessary.1 

It  is  the  man  that  is  able  to  develop  his  virtue, 
not  virtue  that  develops  the  man.8 

The  real  fault  is  to  have  faults  and  not  try  to 
amend  them. 

Where  there  is  education,  there  is  no  distinc- 
tion of  class. 

Men  who  differ  in  their  principles  cannot  help 
each  other  in  their  plans. 

If  language  is  lucid,  that  is  enough. 

There  are  three  errors  to  be  avoided  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  man.  The  first  is  precipitancy 
— speaking  before  it  is  your  turn  to  speak  ;  the 
second  is  bashfulness — not  speaking  when  your 
turn  comes  ;  and  the  third  is  heedlessness — 
speaking  without  observing  the  countenance  of 
the  listener. 

There  are  three  impulses  against  which  the 
nobler  sort  of  man  is  on  his  guard.  In  the  period 
of  youth,  when  the  heyday  in  the  blood  has  not 
yet  subsided,  he  guards  against  lustfulness  ;  in 

1  Before  subscribing  to  the  popular  judgment.     Cf.  saying 
on  p.  103. 

2  I.e.    mere  passivity,  as  advocated  by  the  Taoists,  will 
not  do. 


106         MISCELLANEOUS    SAYINGS 

the  prime  of  life,  when  the  physical  frame  is 
vigorous  and  strong,  he  guards  against  pugnacity  ; 
in  old  age,  when  the  vital  forces  are  in  their 
decline,  he  guards  against  the  greed  of  gain.1 

The  highest  class  of  men  are  they  whose  know- 
ledge is  innate  ;  next  to  these  are  they  whose 
knowledge  is  acquired  by  study  8  ;  after  them 
come  those  who  are  dull-witted,  yet  strive  to 
learn  ;  while  those  who  are  dull-witted  and  will 
make  no  effort  to  learn  are  the  lowest  of  the 
people. 

"  When  you  see  the  good,  act  as  though  you 
could  never  quite  come  up  with  it ;  when  you 
are  brought  face  to  face  with  evil,  act  as  though 
you  were  trying  the  heat  of  boiling  water  "  : — 
I  have  heard  some  such  saying  as  this,  and  I  have 
seen  men  live  up  to  it.  "  Dwell  in  retirement, 
in  order  to  work  out  your  aims  ;  practise  right- 
eousness, in  order  to  apprehend  the  Truth  "  : — 
such  a  saying  I  have  heard,  but  I  have  never  seen 
a  man  live  up  to  it.s 

1  These  numerical  categories  are  hardly  more  than  a  con- 
ventional form  into  which  the  Chinese  are  fond  of  throwing 
ethical  and  other  teaching.     Needless  to  say,  they  are  not 
to  be  considered  as  exhaustive. 

2  Confucius,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  86),  puts  himself  in  this 
second  class. 

3  The  difference  lies  in  the  set  purpose  of  studying  virtue  in 
a  systematic  way,  and  not  merely  doing  right  when  occasion 
offers. 


MISCELLANEOUS   SAYINGS         107 

Men's  natures  are  alike  ;  it  is  their  habits 
that  carry  them  far  apart. 

Only  two  classes  of  men  never  change  :  the 
wisest  of  the  wise  and  the  dullest  of  the  dull. 

Speaking  to  Tzu  Lu,  the  Master  said  :  Have 
you  ever  heard,  Yu,  of  the  six  shadows  which 
attend  six  several  virtues  ? — No,  he  replied. — 
Sit  down,  then,  and  I  will  tell  you.  Love  of 
goodness  without  the  will  to  learn  l  casts  the 
shadow  called  foolishness.  Love  of  knowledge 
without  the  will  to  learn  casts  the  shadow  called 
instability.  Love  of  truth  without  the  will  to 
learn  casts  the  shadow  called  insensibility. 
Love  of  candour  without  the  will  to  learn  casts 
the  shadow  called  rudeness.  Love  of  daring 
without  the  will  to  learn  casts  the  shadow  called 
turbulence.  Love  of  firmness  without  the  will 
to  learn  casts  the  shadow  called  eccentricity. 

Ceremonies,  forsooth  !  Can  ceremonies  be 
reduced  to  a  mere  matter  of  silken  robes  and  jade 
ornaments  ?  Music,  forsooth  !  Can  music  be 
reduced  to  a  mere  matter  of  bells  and  drums  ?  8 

1  "  The  will  to  learn  "  is  a  necessarily  vague    rendering 
of  the  equally  vague  original.     It  means  here  a  desire  for 
moral  culture,  which  is  nothing  else  than  the  development 
of  that  inner  sense  of  harmony  and  proportion  (li)  referred 
to  on  p.   99.      Good  instincts,  according  to  Confucius,  are 
not  enough  to  produce  virtues,  unless  they  are  supplemented 
by  careful  cultivation  of  this  moral  sense. 

2  A  magnificent  array  of    vestments  and  chalices  will  no 


108         MISCELLANEOUS   SAYINGS 

Men  who  are  grave  and  stern  in  appearance, 
but  inwardly  weak  and  unprincipled — are  they 
not  comparable  to  the  lowest  class  of  humanity — 
sneaking  thieves  that  break  into  houses  by  night  ? 

Your  goody-goody  people  are  the  thieves  of 
virtue. 

The  Master  said  :  Would  that  I  could  do  with- 
out speaking  ! — Tzu  Kung  said  :  If  our  Master 
never  spoke,  how  could  we,  his  disciples,  transmit 
his  doctrines  ? — The  Master  replied  :  Does  God 
speak  ?  The  four  seasons  hold  on  their  course, 
and  all  things  continue  to  live  and  grow.  Yet, 
tell  me,  does  God  speak  ? 

Girls  and  servants  are  the  most  difficult  people 
to  handle.  If  you  treat  them  familiarly,  they 
become  disrespectful ;  if  you  keep  them  at  a 
distance,  they  resent  it. 

more  constitute  a  true  ceremony  than  a  number  of  musical 
instruments  alone,  without  the  brain  of  a  composer,  can 
produce  music.  The  whole  value  of  a  ceremony  is  determined 
by  the  state  of  mind  of  the  person  who  performs  it. 


PERSONALIA 

In  his  moments  of  leisure,  the  Master's  manner 
was  uniformly  cheerful  and  smiling. 

If  the  Master  happened  to  be  dining  beside 
one  who  was  in  mourning  for  his  parents,  he  never 
ate  a  full  meal.  He  never  sang  on  any  day  in 
the  course  of  which  he  had  been  bewailing  a  death. 

The  Master  would  never  talk  about  prodigies, 
feats  of  strength,  crime,  or  supernatural  beings.1 

The  Master  made  four  things  the  subject  of  his 
teaching  :  a  knowledge  of  literature  and  the  arts, 
conduct,  conscientiousness  and  truthfulness.* 

The  Master  fished  with  a  line  but  not  with  a 
net.  When  he  went  out  with  bow  and  arrow,  he 
only  shot  at  birds  on  the  wing. 

If  the  Master  happened  to  be  with  singers, 
and  they  sang  a  piece  well,  he  would  get  them  to 

1  Under    these  circumstances,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  how 
edified  he  would  be  by  the  modern  daily  press,  which  subsists 
almost  entirely  on  these  very  topics. 

2  I   am  unable   to  improve  on  this  rendering,  which  ia 
borrowed  from  Mr.  Ku  Hung-ming. 

1UU 


110  PERSONALIA 

repeat  it,  when  he  would  also  join  in  the  song 
himself. 

The  Master  was  affable,  yet  grave  ;  stern,  but 
not  fierce;  attentive  in  his  behaviour,  and  yet  calm. 

The  Master  seldom  spoke  of  money-making, 
of  the  laws  of  Providence,  or  of  moral  virtue.1 

There  were  four  words  of  which  the  Master 
barred  the  use  :  he  would  have  no  "  shall's," 
no  "  must's,"  no  "  certainly's,"  no  "  I's."  * 

Whenever  the  Master  saw  a  person  in  mourning, 
or  in  official  robes,  or  one  who  was  blind,  he  would 
at  once  rise  from  his  seat,  even  though  the  other 
were  his  junior  ;  or  if  he  passed  them  in  the 
street,  he  would  quicken  his  step.3 

Once  when  the  Master  was  lying  seriously  ill, 
Tzu  Lu  got  the  disciples  to  act  the  part  of  Ministers 
of  State.4  In  an  interval  of  his  sickness,  Con- 

1  This  statement — at  least  as  regards  moral  virtue  (Jen) — 
seems  hopelessly  at  variance  with  the  evidence  of  the  Analects. 
Perhaps  no  more  is  meant  than  that  he  was  unwilling  to 
dogmatise  on  such  a  delicate  subject.  On  p.  72,  for  instance, 
he  refuses  to  judge  whether  certain  disciples  have  true  moral 
virtue  or  not. 

3  This  is  Mr.  Jennings's  interpretation,  and  it  seems  to  me 
the  simplest  and  best. 

3  Thus  showing,  says  a  commentator,  his  sympathy  with 
sorrow,  his  respect  for  rank,  his  tenderness  for  the  afflicted. 
Quickening  his  pace  was  also  a  mark  of  respect. 

*  Just  as  though  Confucius  had  his  own  Court  and  entour- 
age, like  a  feudal  prince.  This  probably  happened  during 
his  exile  in  some  foreign  state,  where  the  chance  of  his  obtain- 


PERSONALIA  111 

fucius  said  :  What  a  long  time  Yu  has  been 
keeping  up  this  imposture  !  In  pretending  to 
have  ministers  attendant  on  me  when  I  have 
none,  whom  am  I  deceiving  ?  Am  I  deceiving 
God  ?  But  apart  from  that,  is  it  not  better  that 
I  should  breathe  my  last  in  the  arms  of  my  dis- 
ciples, than  that  I  should  die  in  the  midst  of 
officials  ?  And  after  all,  though  I  may  not  be 
accorded  the  honour  of  a  public  funeral,  I  am  not 
dying  out  on  the  high  road. 

The  Master  wished  to  settle  among  the  nine 
eastern  tribes.  Some  one  said  :  How  can  you  ? 
They  are  savages. — The  Master  replied  :  If  a 
higher  type  of  man  dwelt  in  their  midst,  how 
could  their  savage  condition  last  ? 

Confucius  hi  his  native  village  was  simple  and 
unassuming.  He  gave  the  impression  of  being 
no  great  speaker.  In  the  ancestral  temple  and  at 
Court  he  spoke  fluently,  but  with  a  certain  reserve. 

At  Court,  he  spoke  to  the  ministers  of  lower 
rank  with  frankness  and  affability.  To  those  of 
higher  rank  he  spoke  quietly,  but  with  decision. 
In  the  presence  of  his  Sovereign,  he  seemed  full 
of  awe,  but  at  the  same  time  grave  and  collected. 

When  employed  by  the  Prince  in  the  reception 
of  distinguished  visitors,  his  expression  would 

ing  a  public  funeral  would  doubtless  be  proportionate  to 
the  display  made  by  his  followers. 


112  PERSONALIA 

change,  and  his  legs  seemed  to  bend  under  him. 
Standing  in  the  presence  of  the  visitors,  he  saluted 
them  with  clasped  hands,  turning  about  from 
right  to  left,  and  keeping  the  skirt  of  his  robe 
properly  adjusted,  back  and  front.  He  then 
hastened  forward  with  arms  extended  like  the 
wings  of  a  bird.  When  a  visitor  departed,  he 
would  report  in  that  sense  to  the  Prince,  saying  : 
"  The  visitor  is  not  looking  back."  l 

When  he  entered  the  gate  of  the  palace,  he 
seemed  to  bend  his  body  as  though  the  gate  were 
not  large  enough  to  let  him  pass.  He  did  not 
stand  in  the  middle  of  the  doorway,  nor  in  passing 
through  did  he  set  foot  on  the  threshold.  When 
he  passed  the  Prince's  throne,  his  expression 
seemed  to  change,  his  legs  seemed  to  bend  under 
him,  and  words  seemed  to  fail  him.  Holding  up 
his  robe  with  both  hands,  he  ascended  the  dais, 
his  body  slightly  bent,  and  holding  his  breath  as 
though  he  dared  not  breathe.  When  he  came 
out  from  his  audience  and  had  descended  the 
first  step,  his  countenance  lost  its  anxious  expres- 
sion, and  he  looked  serene  and  happy.  When  he 
reached  the  bottom  of  the  steps,  he  hastened  away 
with  his  arms  outstretched  like  wings  ;  but  when 
he  got  back  to  his  place,  he  still  seemed  full  of  awe. 

1  "  The  ways  of  China,  it  appears,  were  much  the  same 
anciently  as  now.  A  guest  turns  round  and  bows  repeatedly 
hi  leaving,  and  the  host  cannot  return  to  his  place  till  these 
salutations  are  ended." — LEGGE. 


PERSONALIA  113 

He  carried  the  Prince's  regalia  with  body 
slightly  bent,  as  though  he  could  hardly  support 
its  weight ;  he  raised  it  to  the  height  of  his 
head,  and  lowered  it  again  to  the  height  of  his 
chest.  His  countenance  indicated  nervousness, 
and  he  dragged  his  feet  as  though  something 
held  them  to  the  ground. 

In  offering  presents  as  an  ambassador,  his 
appearance  was  sedate. 

At  a  private  audience,  he  wore  a  pleased  look. 

He  would  not  eat  meat  that  was  clumsily  cut, 
or  served  without  its  proper  sauce.  Although 
there  might  be  an  abundance  of  meat,  he  never 
let  it  exceed  in  quantity  the  vegetable  food.  In 
wine  alone  he  laid  down  for  himself  no  particular 
limit,  but  he  never  reached  the  stage  of  intoxica- 
tion. He  took  ginger  at  every  meal.  He  did  not 
eat  much.  When  eating,  he  did  not  converse  ; 
when  in  bed,  he  did  not  speak.  Even  though 
he  had  nothing  but  coarse  rice  and  vegetable  soup, 
he  would  always  reverently  offer  some  to  the 
ancestral  spirits. 

He  would  not  sit  on  a  mat  *  that  was  placed 
awry. 

On  one  occasion,  Chi  K'ang  Tzu  having  sent 
him  some  medicine,  he  bowed  as  he  received  it, 

1  The  Chinese  of  that  date  dispensed  with  chairs,  as  the 
Japanese  have  done  up  to  the  present  time. 


114  PERSONALIA 

saying  :   Not  being  familiar  with   this  drug,   I 
would  not  venture  to  try  it. 

His  stables  having  been  burnt  down,  the  Master 
on  his  return  from  the  Court  said  :  Has  any  one 
been  hurt  ? — He  did  not  ask  about  the  horses.1 

If  the  Prince  sent  him  a  present  of  cooked  meat, 
he  would  sit  down  to  taste  it  on  a  properly  placed 
mat.  If  the  Prince  sent  him  a  present  of  raw 
meat,  he  would  have  it  cooked  and  offer  it  in 
sacrifice.  If  the  Prince  sent  him  a  live  animal, 
he  would  keep  it  alive. 

When  the  Prince  summoned  him  to  his  presence, 
he  would  go  on  foot  without  waiting  for  his 
carriage. 

If  any  of  his  friends  died  who  was  without  a 
home  or  relations,  he  would  say  :  I  will  see  to  the 
funeral. 

In  bed,  he  did  not  lie  like  a  corpse.  In  his 
home  life,  his  manner  was  not  too  formal. 

At  the  sight  of  a  person  in  mourning,  though 
it  might  be  an  intimate  acquaintance,  he  would 
always  look  grave.  On  meeting  an  official  in 
uniform,  or  a  blind  man,  however  ragged,  he 
would  always  show  him  some  mark  of  respect. 

1  The  point  is,  that  in  his  solicitude  for  others  Confucius 
never  thought  of  his  own  loss,  not  that  he  was  indifferent 
to  the  suffering  of  animals. 


PERSONALIA  115 

When  a  rich  banquet  was  set  before  him,  he 
would  show  his  appreciation  in  his  looks,  and  rise 
to  return  thanks. 

He  would  change  countenance  at  a  thunder- 
clap or  a  sudden  squall  of  wind. 

When  in  his  carriage,  he  would  not  look  behind 
him,  talk  rapidly,  or  point  with  his  finger.1 

Duke  Ling  of  Wei  asked  Confucius  about  the 
disposition  of  troops  in  warfare.  Confucius 
answered  :  I  know  something  about  the  arts  of 
peace,2  but  I  have  never  studied  the  art  of  war. 
And  on  the  morrow  he  departed.  But  when  he 
came  to  the  State  of  Ch'en,  he  was  cut  off  from 
supplies,3  and  his  followers  were  so  enfeebled  that 
they  could  hardly  stand.  Tzu  Lu  indignantly 
sought  the  Master's  presence,  saying  :  Is  it  for 
the  princely  man  to  feel  the  pinch  of  privation  ? — 
The  Master  replied  :  Assuredly  privation  may 

1  Some  of  the  minute  details  given  above  cannot  but  strike 
us  as  rather  ridiculous.     Two  points,  however,  must  be  borne 
in  mind:    (1)  that  the  customs  and  ceremonial  belonging  to 
any  one  age  or  country  will  always  at  first  sight  appear  strange 
and  laughable  to  the  men  of  any  other  age  and  country  ; 
(2)  that  Confucius  himself  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the 
excessive  zeal  which  prompted  admiring  disciples  to  portray 
his  personal   habits  with   such  embarrassing  fidelity.     How 
many  philosophers  would  come  equally  well  through  such 
an  ordeal ? 

2  Literally,    "  dish    and     platter     business,"    i.e.    things 
pertaining  to  sacrificial  worship. 

3  By  order  of  the  Duke. 


116  PERSONALIA 

come  his  way,  but  it  is  only  the  baser  type  of 
man  who  under  it  grows  demoralised  and  reckless. 

Mien,  a  blind  musician,1  having  called  on 
Confucius,  the  Master  said  to  him  when  he  came 
to  a  flight  of  steps  :  "  Here  are  the  steps  "  ; 
and  when  he  came  to  the  mat  which  was  spread 
for  him  :  "  Here  is  your  mat."  When  all  the 
visitors  were  seated,  the  Master  told  him  who 
they  were,  saying  :  So-and-so  is  sitting  here, 
so-and-so  is  sitting  there.  After  Mien  had  gone, 
Tzu  Chang  asked,  saying  :  Is  it  the  proper  thing 
to  speak  thus  to  a  musician  ? — The  Master  replied  : 
Assuredly  it  is  right  to  give  this  help  to  a  blind 
man. 

The  people  of  Ch'i  sent  a  band  of  singing-girls 
as  a  present  to  the  Duke  of  Lu,  and  Chi  Huan  Tzu 
accepted  the  gift.  For  three  days  after  that  no 
Court  was  held,  and  Confucius  departed.2 

1  Blind  men  and  musicians  were  almost  convertible  terms 
in  ancient  China :    that  is  to  say,  all  musicians  were  blind, 
and  the  majority  of  blind  men  took  to  music  for  a  profession. 

2  The  famous  episode  hero  briefly  related  was  the  turning- 
point  of  the  sage's  career.     Through  the  weakness  of  his 
prince  and  the  jealousy  of  the  rival  minister  Chi  Huan  Tzu, 
he  was  suddenly  dislodged  from  the  pinnacle  of  his  fume  and 
condemned  to  thirteen  years  of  homeless  wandering. 


CONFUCIUS  AS  SEEN  BY  OTHERS 

Tzu  Ch'in  asked  Tzu  Kung,  saying  :  Whenever 
our  Master  comes  to  any  new  country,  he  is  sure 
to  find  out  all  about  its  method  of  government. 
Does  he  seek  this  information  himself,  or  is  it 
voluntarily  proffered  ? — Tzu  Kung  replied  :  Our 
Master  gains  his  information  because  he  is  so 
genial  and  good,  so  full  of  deference,  modesty  and 
regard  for  others.  In  seeking  information,  how 
differently  does  he  behave  from  ordinary  men  ! 

The  Master  having  gone  up  into  the  Grand 
Temple,  asked  questions  about  everything.  Some 
one  remarked  :  Who  says  that  the  son  of  the 
citizen  of  Tsou  has  any  knowledge  of  ceremonial 
observances  ?  He  comes  to  the  Temple  and  asks 
about  everything  he  sees. — Hearing  the  remark, 
the  Master  said  :  This  in  itself  is  a  ceremonial 
observance. 

The  prefect  of  the  frontier  in  the  town  of  I  l 
asked  to  be  introduced  to  Confucius,  saying  :  I 

1  This  was  on  the  borders  of  the  Wei  State,  whither 
Confucius,  with  a  small  band  of  disciples,  was  retiring,  heavy 
of  heart,  after  his  discomfiture  in  Lu. 

117 


118    CONFUCIUS  AS  SEEN  BY  OTHERS 

have  never  failed  to  obtain  an  audience  of  any 
sage  who  has  visited  these  parts. — He  was 
thereupon  introduced  by  the  Master's  followers, 
and  on  coming  out  he  said  :  My  sons,  why  grieve 
at  your  Master's  fall  from  power  ?  The  Empire  has 
long  been  lying  in  evil  ways,  but  now  God  is  going 
to  make  Confucius  his  herald  to  rouse  the  land.1 

The  Master  said  :  Shen,  a  single  principle  runs 
through  all  my  teaching.2 — Tseng  Tzu  answered, 
Yes. — When  the  Master  had  gone  out,  the  dis- 
ciples asked,  saying  :  What  principle  does  he 
mean  ? — Tseng  Tzu  said  :  Our  Master's  teaching 
simply  amounts  to  this  :  loyalty  to  oneself  and 
charity  to  one's  neighbour.3 

1  Literally,  "  is  going  to  use  him  as  a  bell  with  a  wooden 
clapper ' ' — this  being  the  instrument  used  in  making  announce- 
ments or  to  call  the  people  together.  The  friendly  prefect's 
prophecy  was  to  be  fulfilled  more  wonderfully  than  ever  he 
could  have  imagined.  Never,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race  has  one  man  exerted  such  an  enormous  influence 
for  good  on  after  generations. 

3  Legge's  rendering,  "  My  doctrine  is  that  of  an  all-per- 
vading unity,"  is  quite  untenable,  and  no  other  translator  has 
followed  him  here.  The  logic  of  the  passage  obviously  re- 
quires the  meaning  given  above. 

3  This  saying  should  be  compared  with  those  on  pp.  91 
and  69.  It  is  generally  acclaimed  as  the  best  epitome  of 
Confucian  teaching,  yet  it  was  reserved  for  Mr.  Ku  Hung-ming, 
a  Chinaman.to  give  the  first  correct  translation  of  it  in  English. 
The  two  important  words  are  chung  and  shu,  "  conscientious- 
ness "  and  "  charity,"  for  which  see  notes  on  pp.  58  and  69. 
Legge's  version,  "  To  be  true  to  the  principles  of  our  nature  and 
the  benevolent  exercise  of  them  to  others,"  though  ponderous, 
would  seem  to  have  hit  the  true  meaning,  had  he  not  spoilt 


CONFUCIUS  AS  SEEN  BY  OTHERS     119 

Yen  Yuan  heaved  a  deep  sigh  and  said  :  The 
more  I  look  at  our  Master's  teaching,  the  higher 
it  seems.  The  more  I  test  it,  the  more  reliable 
it  appears.  I  am  gazing  at  it  in  front  of  me, 
when  lo  !  it  is  suddenly  behind  me.  Our  Master 
knows  how  to  draw  men  after  him  by  regular 
steps.  He  broadens  our  outlook  by  means  of 
polite  learning,  and  restrains  our  impulses  by 
means  of  inward  self-control.  Even  if  I  wished 
to  stop,  I  could  not  do  so  ;  yet  after  I  have 
exhausted  all  my  efforts  in  pursuit  of  the  goal, 
there  still  remains  something  inaccessible  rising 
up  beyond ;  and  though  I  would  fain  make 
towards  it,  I  cannot  find  the  way. 

Tzu  Lu  once  passed  the  night  in  Shih-men, 
where  the  gate-keeper  said  to  him  :  Where  do 
you  come  from  ? — Tzu  Lu  replied  :  From  the 
school  of  Confucius. — Oh,  is  he  not  the  man, 
said  the  other,  who  is  trying  to  do  what  he  knows 
to  be  impossible  ?  l 

it  by  a  note  to  the  effect  that  shu  is  "  duty-doing  on  the 
principle  of  reciprocity."  It  has  nothing  on  earth  to  do  with 
reciprocity,  being  in  fact  that  disinterested  love  of  one's 
neighbour  which  was  preached  five  hundred  years  later  in 
Palestine.  The  other  precept,  embodied  in  the  word  chung, 
is  exactly  Shakespeare's  "  To  thine  own  self  be  true  " — a 
noble  moral  conception  for  which,  obscured  as  it  has  been  by 
bungling  translators,  Confucius  has  never  yet  received  full 
credit. 

1  The  age  in  which  Confucius  lived  was  so  given  over  to 
the  forces  of  disorder,  militarism  and  intrigue,  and  the  chances 
of  a  moral  reformer  were  regarded  as  so  hopeless,  that  it  was 


120    CONFUCIUS  AS  SEEN  BY  OTHERS 

Ch'en  K'ang  asked  Po  Yii,1  saying  :  Have 
you  ever  received  any  secret  teaching  from  your 
father  ? — He  replied  :  No.  But  once,  when  I 
was  passing  hurriedly  through  our  hall,  I  met  my 
father  standing  alone,  and  he  said  :  Have  you 
studied  the  Odes  ? — I  replied,  Not  yet. — He 
said  :  If  you  do  not  study  the  Odes,  you  will 
have  no  conversation. — Thereupon  I  withdrew 
and  studied  the  Odes.  Another  day  I  met  him 
again  standing  alone  as  I  hastened  through  the 
hall,  and  he  said  :  Have  you  studied  the  Book  of 
Rites  ?  *— I  replied  :  Not  yet.— He  said  :  If 
you  do  not  study  the  Book  of  Rites,  you  will 
have  no  stability  of  character. — I  withdrew  and 
studied  the  Book  of  Rites.  These  are  the  two 
pieces  of  instruction  I  have  received. — Ch'en 
K'ang  went  away  rejoicing  and  said  :  I  asked 
about  one  thing  and  have  learned  three — some- 

a  common  thing  for  men  of  principle  to  retire  from  public 
affairs  altogether,  and  either  lead  the  sequestered  life  of  a 
hermit  or  take  to  some  mean  employment  for  a  living.  The 
gate-keeper  here  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  this  class.  Con- 
fucius, however,  was  made  of  sterner  stuff,  and  it  may  be 
claimed  that  he  did  ultimately,  through  sheer  force  of  char- 
acter, succeed  in  achieving  the  "  impossible." 

1  The  "  style  "  or  familiar  name  of  K'ung  Li,  the  only  son 
of  Confucius. 

2  Li  here  is   obviously  the  name  of  a  book,  and  not  "  the 
rules  of  propriety  "  or  even  "  the  arts,"  as  Legge  and  Mr. 
Ku  Hung-ming  respectively  take  it.     At  the  same  time,  we 
must  be  careful  not  to  identify  it  with  the  now  existing  Li 
Chi  or  Book  of  Rites,  which  did  not  take  shape  until  a  much 
later  period. 


CONFUCIUS  AS  SEEN  BY  OTHERS    121 

thing  about  the  Odes,  something  about  the  Rites, 
and  also  that  the  higher  type  of  man  has  no 
secrets  even  with  his  own  son. 

Yang  Huo  wished  to  have  an  interview  with 
Confucius,  but  Confucius  would  not  go  to  see 
him.  He  therefore  sent  Confucius  a  sucking-pig 
as  a  present.1  Confucius,  however,  chose  a 
time  when  the  other  was  out,  to  go  and  pay  his 
respects.  But  he  happened  to  fall  in  with  him 
on  the  road.  Thereupon  Yang  Huo  addressed 
Confucius,  saying  :  Come  with  me.  I  have 
something  to  say  to  you.  Can  he  be  called  truly 
benevolent,  who  hugs  his  jewel  to  his  bosom  and 
allows  his  country  to  drift  into  confusion  ? — He 
cannot,  was  the  reply. — Can  he  be  called  truly 
wise,  who  wishes  to  engage  in  public  affairs,  yet 
loses  several  opportunities  of  doing  so  ? — He 
cannot. — Well,  rejoined  Yang  Huo,  the  days  and 
months  are  fleeting  by,  and  the  years  will  not 
wait  for  us. — True,  replied  Confucius  ;  I  will 
presently  take  office.2 

1  Because    etiquette    would    require   an   acknowledgment 
of  the  gift  at  the  donor's  house. 

2  This    episode   is  probably   to   be  referred   to   the   year 
502  B.C.,  when  Yang  Huo,  the  nominal  subordinate  of  Chi 
Huan  Tzii  (himself  of  usurping  tendencies,  see  Introduction, 
p.   15),  was  in  open  rebellion  and  seemed  likely  to  become 
master  of  the  whole  state  of  Lu.     He  was  anxious  to  enlist 
the  prestige  of  a  man  like  Confucius  on  his  side,  but  the  latter 
steadily  refused  to  countenance  his  schemes.    In  the  following 
year,  Yang  Huo  was  ejected  from  the  state,  and  gratitude 
impelled  the  Duke  to  offer  a  governorship  to  Confucius. 


122    CONFUCIUS  AS  SEEN  BY  OTHERS 

The  eccentric  Chieh  Yii  l  of  the  Ch'u  State 
passed  Confucius'  carriage,  singing  :  0  phoenix  ! 
O  phoenix  !  How  has  thy  virtue  fallen  !  The 
past  need  no  longer  be  a  subject  of  reproof,  but 
against  the  future  it  is  still  possible  to  provide. 
Desist,  desist !  Great  is  the  danger  of  those 
who  now  engage  in  government. — Confucius 
alighted,  wishing  to  speak  with  him,  but  Chieh 
Yii  hastened  rapidly  away,  and  he  was  unable 
to  get  speech  of  him. 

Ch'ang  Chii  and  Chieh  Ni a  were  working 
together  in  the  fields  when  Confucius  passed  by 
and  sent  Tzu  Lu  to  ascertain  from  them  the 
whereabouts  of  the  ford.  Ch'ang  Chii  asked  : 
Who  is  that  man  holding  the  reins  ? — That  is 
Confucius,  replied  Tzu  Lu. — Is  it  Confucius  of 
the  Lu  State  ? — Yes. — Then  surely  he  is  the  man 
to  know  where  the  ford  is.5 — Tzu  Lu  then  ques- 
tioned Chieh  Ni.  Chieh  Ni  said  :  Who  are  you, 
Sir  ? — I  am  Chung  Yu. — Are  you  a  disciple  of 
Confucius  of  the  Lu  State  ? — He  replied  :  I  am. — 
The  whole  Empire,  said  Chieh  Ni,  is  rushing  head- 
long to  destruction,  and  who  is  there  that  will 
reform  it  ?  As  for  you,  instead  of  following  a 

1  Apparently  a  Taoist,  who  pinned  his  faith  to  Lao  Tzu's 
newly  enunciated  doctrine  of  inaction. 
£  2  Also  Taoist  recluses. 

'^3  This  is  said  to  be  a  sneer  at  the  restlessness  which  kept 
Confucius  wandering  all  over  the  country,  so  that  no  place 
could  be  unfamiliar  to  him. 


CONFUCIUS  AS  SEEN  BY  OTHERS    123 

man  who  withdraws  from  prince  after  prince  in 
succession,  would  it  not  be  better  to  follow  a 
man  who  has  withdrawn  from  the  world  alto- 
gether ? — And  he  went  on  hoeing  without  a 
pause.  Tzu  Lu  went  back  and  reported  these 
remarks,  whereupon  the  Master  looked  surprised 
and  said  :  We  cannot  join  the  company  of  birds 
and  beasts.  If  I  am  not  to  associate  with  these 
men  of  the  ruling  class,  with  whom  am  I  to 
associate  ?  l  If  right  principles  prevailed  in  the 
Empire,  then  indeed  there  would  be  no  need 
for  me  to  reform  it. 

Shu-sun  Wu-shu,8  speaking  to  the  ministers 
at  Court,  said  :  Tzu  Kung  is  a  greater  sage  than 
Confucius. — Tzu-fu  Ching-po  3  repeated  this  to 
Tzu  Kung,  who  said  :  Let  me  use  the  simile  of 
a  house  surrounded  by  a  wall.  My  wall  rises 
only  to  the  height  of  a  man's  shoulders,  so  that 
any  one  can  look  over  and  see  the  excellence  of 

1  The  idea  is,  "  Every  man  to  his  own  trade.     Why  should 
I  not  then  busy  myaelf  with  government — the  subject  to 
which  I  have  devoted  my  life  ?  "     I  do  not  agree  with  Legge 
that  the  compiler  of  this  chapter  could  not  have  been  a 
disciple  of  the  sage.   Confucius  successfully  refutes  the  laiaaer- 
faire  argument  of  the  hermit,  who  would  dissuade  him  from 
reform  on  the  strange  and  unsatisfactory  ground  that  the 
world's  affairs  were  in  a  thoroughly  bad  state.     To  any  one 
but  a  Taoist  it  would  be  evident  that  this  was  the  very  time 
for  reform. 

2  A  leading  member  of  one  of  the  three  great  families  in 
the  Lu  State. 

3  A  high  official. 


124    CONFUCIUS   AS   SEEN   BY   OTHERS 

the  building  within.  But  my  Master's  wall  is 
many  fathoms  in  height,  so  that  one  who  fails 
to  find  the  gate  of  entry  cannot  see  the  beauties 
of  the  temple  nor  the  rich  apparel  of  the  officiating 
priests.  It  may  be  that  only  a  few  will  succeed 
in  finding  the  gate.  Need  we,  then,  be  surprised 
at  His  Excellency's  remark  ? 

Shu-sun  Wu-shu  was  disparaging  Confucius. 
Tzu  Kung  said  :  It  is  no  good.  Confucius  is 
proof  against  detraction.  The  wisdom  of  other 
men  is  like  hills  and  mountain-peaks,  which 
however  high  can  still  be  scaled.  But  Confucius 
is  like  the  sun  or  the  moon,  which  can  never 
be  reached  by  the  foot  of  man.  A  man  may 
want  to  cut  himself  off  from  their  light,  but 
what  harm  will  that  do  to  the  sun  or  the  moon  ? 
It  only  shows  very  plainly  that  he  has  no  notion 
of  the  measurement  of  capacity. 


SAYINGS    OF    THE    DISCIPLES 

Yu  Tzu  said  :  It  is  seldom  that  good  sons  and 
brothers  are  given  to  insubordinate  conduct. 
That  those  who  dislike  insubordinate  conduct 
should  be  ready  to  foment  sedition,  is  something 
absolutely  unknown.  The  wise  man  attends  to 
the  root ;  for  if  this  be  properly  set,  virtue  will 
spring  from  it.  And  what  is  the  root  of  all 
goodness  but  filial  piety  and  fraternal  love  ? 

Tseng  Tzu  said  :  There  are  three  points  on 
which  I  daily  examine  myself  : — Have  I  been 
conscientious  in  working  for  others  ?  Have  I 
been  truthful  in  my  intercourse  with  my  friends  ? 
Have  I  practised  what  I  preach  ? 

Tzu  Hsia  said  :  The  man  who  can  appreciate 
moral  worth  and  disengage  his  mind  from  sensual 
passion  ;  who  can  put  forth  his  utmost  strength 
to  serve  his  parents,  and  lay  down  his  life  to 
serve  his  prince  ;  wrho  speaks  sincerely  in  his 
intercourse  with  friends: — such  a  man,  though 
the  world  may  call  him  untaught,  has  in  my 
opinion  received  the  best  and  highest  education. 

Tzu  Kung  said  :  What  do  you  say  of  the  poor 
man  who  refuses  to  flatter,  and  of  the  rich  matt 

123 


126      SAYINGS    OF   THE    DISCIPLES 

who  is  free  from  pride  ? — They  are  well  enough, 
replied  the  Master  ;  but  better  still  is  the  poor 
man  who  is  cheerful,  and  the  rich  man  who 
cherishes  the  inner  principle  of  harmony  and 
self-control. — Tzu  Kung  said  :  One  must  "  cut 
and  then  carve,  chisel  and  then  polish,"  as  the 
Odes  have  it.  Does  not  this  passage  illustrate 
what  you  say  ? — The  Master  exclaimed  :  Here 
is  somebody  at  last  with  whom  I  can  really  discuss 
the  Odes.  Refer  him  to  any  old  verse,  and  he 
will  see  its  application.1 

Tzu  Hsia  asked,  saying  :   What  is  the  meaning 
of  the  passage  : 
"  What  dimples  in  her  witching  smile  ! 

What  lovely  eyes,  clear  white  and  black  ! 

Simplicity  sets  off  her  ornaments  "  ? 

The  Master  replied  :  You  must  have  a  plain 
background  before  you  can  lay  on  the  colours. — 
Rules  of  ceremony  then  require  a  background  ? — 
Ah  !  exclaimed  the  Master,  Shang  always  seizes 
my  drift.  Here  at  any  rate  is  some  one  with 
whom  I  can  discuss  the  Odes.2 

1  Tzu  Kung,  who  had  passed  from    poverty  to  affluence, 
wished  to  draw  attention  to  his  own  freedom  from  the  vices 
characteristic  of  each  state,  but  his  Master  recommends  the 
pursuit  of  virtue  in  a  more  positive  form.     The  quotation  from 
the  Odes  merely  enforces  the  necessity  of  unceasing  labour 
in  the;  matter  of  self- improvement.     Confucius  was  always 
delighted  with  an  apt  illustration  from  his  favourite  book. 

2  The  Chinese  of  the  above  is  as  usual  extremely  concise. 
For  several  turns  of  phrase  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Jennings's 
translation. 


SAYINGS    OF   THE    DISCIPLES      127 

Tzu  Yu  said  :  Too  much  fault-finding  with 
princes  entails  disgrace  ;  with  friends,  it  brings 
estrangement. 

The  Master  wanted  to  employ  Ch'i-tiao  K'ai 
in  the  business  of  government,  but  the  latter  said  : 
No,  I  cannot  yet  sufficiently  trust  myself. — The 
Master  was  pleased  with  the  reply. 

Once  when  Yen  Yuan  and  Chi  Lu  were  standing 
by,  the  Master  said  :  Come,  tell  me,  each  of  you, 
the  wish  of  your  hearts. — Tzu  Lu  said  :  I  should 
like  to  have  carriages  and  horses  and  fine  fur 
garments,  and  share  them  with  my  friends  ;  nor 
would  I  mind  if  they  were  worn  out  in  this  way. — 
Yen  Yuan  said  :  My  wish  is  to  make  no  parade  of 
goodness  and  no  display  of  toilsome  service 
rendered.1 — Tzu  Lu  then  said  :  I  should  like, 
Sir,  to  hear  your  own  wishes.  The  Master  said  : 
To  comfort  the  aged,  to  win  the  confidence  of  my 
friends,  to  love  and  cherish  the  young. 

The  Master  said  :  Yung  might  well  be  made 
a  prince.2  Chung  Kung  asked  a  question  about 
Tzu-sang  Po-tzii.  The  Master  replied :  He  is 
a  good  man  on  the  whole,  though  easy-going. — 
Chung  Kung  rejoined  :  Is  it  not  excusable  for  a 
man  who  is  strict  in  his  own  habits  to  be  easy- 
going in  dealing  with  the  people  under  him  ? 

1  Literally,  "  display  toil."  The  meaning  seems  to  be  that 
of  the  Tacitean  phrase  "  exprobrare  beneficia." 

3  Literally,  "  one  who  faces  south " — the  customary 
position  for  royalty  enthroned. 


128      SAYINGS   OF   THE    DISCIPLES 

But  if  he  becomes  easy-going  in  his  own  habits 
as  well  as  in  his  practice  abroad,  this  is  surely 
too  much  of  a  good  thing. — The  Master  said  : 
Yung's  words  are  true. 

Jan  Yu  asked  :  Is  our  Master  for  or  against 
the  Prince  of  Wei  ?  l — Oh,  said  Tzii  Kung,  I  will 
ask  him  that. — He  went  in  and  said  :  What  sort 
of  men  were  Po  I  and  Shu  Ch'i  ?  * — They  were 
two  ancient  worthies,  was  the  reply. — Did  they 
ever  repine  ?  he  asked. — They  made  perfect 
virtue  their  aim,  and  they  attained  it.  Why 
then  should  they  repine  ? — Tzu  Kung  went  out 
again  and  said  :  Our  Master  is  not  for  the  Prince. 

Tseng  Tzu  said  :  Ability  asking  instruction  of 
incompetence,  abundance  sitting  at  the  feet  of 
insufficiency,  a  man  of  every  virtue  who  thought 
he  had  none,  solid  in  character  yet  making  himself 
out  a  cypher,  trespassed  against  but  never  re- 
taliating— such  was  the  humble  state  of  mind  in 
which  my  late  friend3  spent  his  life. 

Tseng  Tzu  said  :  If  a  man  can  safely  be  en- 
trusted with  the  care  of  a  young  orphan  prince, 
or  with  the  government  of  a  large  province,  and 
if  the  approach  of  a  great  emergency  cannot 
shake  his  resolution,  is  he  not  a  man  of  the 

1  The  reigning  duke,  who  had    succeeded  his  grandfather 
and  was  now  opposing  his  father's  attempts  to  return  from 
exile  and  secure  the  throne.     See  p.  43. 

2  See  note  on  p.  74. 

3  The  disciple  Yen  Hui. 


SAYINGS    OF   THE    DISCIPLES      129 

princely  type  ?  Of  the  princely  type  he  is 
indeed  ! 

The  authorities  of  Lu  were  proposing  to  re- 
construct the  Long  Treasury.  Min  Tzii-ch'ien 
said  :  Why  not  restore  it,  rather,  in  the  ancient 
style  ?  Why  is  it  necessary  to  renovate  it  al- 
together ? — The  Master  said  :  This  man  is  no 
talker,  but  when  he  does  speak,  he  speaks  to  the 
purpose. 

Ssu-ma  Niu  lamenting  said  :  All  other  men 
have  brothers  ;  I  alone  have  none. — Tzu  Hsia 
said  to  him  :  I  have  heard  it  said  that  life  and 
death  are  divine  dispensations,  that  wealth  and 
rank  depend  on  the  will  of  God.  The  higher 
type  of  man  is  unfailingly  attentive  to  his  own 
conduct,  and  shows  respect  and  true  courtesy  to 
others.  Thus  all  within  the  four  seas  l  are  his 
brethren.  How  then  should  he  grieve  at  having 
no  brothers  ? 

Chi  Tzu-ch'eng  *  said  :  The  higher  type  of  man 
is  possessed  of  solid  qualities,  and  that  is  all. 
What  has  he  to  do  with  the  ornamental  ? — Tzu 
Rung  replied  :  I  am  sorry,  Sir,  to  hear  you  say 
such  a  thing  about  the  higher  type  of  man  ;  for 
a  four-horse  chariot  cannot  overtake  the  spoken 
word.3  The  value  of  the  ornament  and  the  value 

1  Believed  to  constitute  the  boundaries  of    the  habitable 
earth,  like  Homer's  Ocean-river.     Hence  the  phrase  is  used 
as  a  synonym  for  the  Chinese  Empire. 

2  A  minister  in  the  Wei  State.  3  A  proverb. 


130      SAYINGS    OF   THE    DISCIPLES 

of  the  substance  are  closely  connected.  Stripped 
of  hair,  the  hide  of  a  tiger  or  a  leopard  is  very 
like  the  hide  of  a  dog  or  a  sheep. 

Duke  Ai  asked  Yu  Jo,  saying  :  It  has  been  a 
year  of  famine.  My  exchequer  is  low.  What 
am  I  to  do  ? — Yu  Jo  replied  :  Why  not  collect 
tithes  ? — Why,  said  the  Duke,  with  a  tax  of  two- 
tenths  I  still  have  not  enough.  How  am  I  to 
make  one-tenth  do  ? — If  the  people  have  plenty, 
was  the  reply,  how  can  the  Prince  alone  be  in 
want  ?  But  if  the  people  are  in  want,  how 
can  the  Prince  alone  have  plenty  ?* 

Tseng  Tzu  said  of  the  higher  type  of  man  that 
his  culture  tended  to  bring  him  into  communion 
with  friends,  and  his  friendships  tended  to 
heighten  his  altruism. 

The  disciples  of  Tzu  Hsia  asked  Tzu  Chang 
about  the  principles  which  should  govern  friend- 
ship. Tzu  Chang  said  :  What  is  Tzu  Hsia's 
opinion  ? — They  replied  :  Tzu  Hsia  says,  Associate 
with  those  who  come  up  to  your  standard ; 
reject  all  those  who  do  not. — This,  said  Tzu 
Chang,  is  different  from  what  I  have  been  taught. 
The  nobler  sort  of  man  honours  the  virtuous 
and  wise,  but  he  admits  to  his  society  all  men 
without  distinction.  He  admires  the  good,  but 
he  also  pities  the  weaker  brethren.  Am  I  a  man 
of  great  wisdom  and  goodness  ? — then  who  is 

1  A  rebuke  to  the  Prince  for  his  greed  in  a  time  of  distress. 


SAYINGS    OF    THE    DISCIPLES      131 

there  among  my  fellow-men  that  I  will  not  bear 
with  ?  Or  am  I  neither  wise  nor  good  ? — then 
other  men  will  reject  me.  How  can  one  justify 
this  rejection  of  others  ?  1 

Tzu  Hsia  said  :  The  inferior  type  of  man  always 
tries  to  gloss  over  his  faults. 

Tzu  Hsia  said  :  The  wise  man  will  gain  the 
confidence  of  the  people  before  laying  burdens 
upon  them ;  otherwise,  they  will  consider  it 
oppression.  He  will  gain  the  confidence  of  his 
sovereign  before  censuring  his  actions  ;  otherwise, 
the  latter  will  consider  it  mere  libel  and  abuse. 

Tzu  Hsia  said  :  He  who  does  not  transgress 
the  larger  principles  of  virtuous  conduct  may  be 
excused  for  disregarding  the  boundary  line  in 
matters  of  smaller  import. 

Tzu  Yu  said  :  The  followers  and  disciples  of 
Tzu  Hsia  are  trained  well  enough  in  sprinkling 
and  sweeping  the  floor,  in  responding  and  answer- 
ing questions,  in  entering  and  leaving  a  room. 
But  these  are  mere  accessories.  Of  fundamentals 
they  are  totally  ignorant.  How  can  this  be 
considered  enough  ? — Tzu  Hsia,  hearing  of  these 
remarks,  said  :  Ah  !  Yen  Yu  is  mistaken.  It 

1  Each  pedagogue  has  seized  only  one  side  of  the  truth. 
We  need  not  reject  any  of  our  fellow-men,  and  yet  show 
discrimination  in  the  choice  of  our  associates.  See  the  first 
saying  on  p.  53,  where  Confucius,  clearer-headed  than  his 
disciples,  puts  the  matter  in  a  nutshell. 


132       SAYINGS   OF   THE   DISCIPLES 

is  not  the  way  of  the  wise  teacher  to  distinguish 
between  subjects  of  first-class  importance,  which 
must  be  taught,  and  subjects  of  secondary  im- 
portance, which  may  be  neglected.  He  cultivates 
minds  just  as  he  would  cultivate  plants,  each 
species  requiring  separate  treatment.  It  cannot 
be  the  wise  man's  way  to  produce  confusion  and 
error.  He  only  is  inspired  who  teaches  methodi- 
cally, having  a  beginning  and  an  end. 

Tzu  Hsia  said  :  Let  the  official  who  has  time 
to  spare  devote  it  to  study  ;  let  the  student  who 
has  time  to  spare  devote  it  to  public  affairs. 

Tzu  Yu  said  :  The  rites  of  mourning  should  not 
extend  beyond  the  expression  of  heartfelt  grief. 

The  chief  of  the  Meng  family  having  appointed 
Yang  Fu  to  be  Criminal  Judge,  the  latter  went  to 
Tseng  Tzu  for  advice.  Tseng  Tzu  said  :  Our 
rulers  have  lost  their  way,  and  the  people  have 
long  been  scattered  and  distracted.  When  you 
discover  the  facts  of  a  crime,  be  not  moved  with 
joy  but  rather  with  pity  and  grief. 

Tzu  Kung  said  :  The  mistakes  of  a  great  and 
good  man  are  like  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon  : 
his  failing  is  seen  by  all,  and  when  he  repairs  it, 
all  look  up  to  him  with  awe. 


Printed  by  Hazell,  Watson  &  Vint?,  Ld.,  London  and  Ayltsbmy. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


JUN17  1991 


A     000029034     6 


Uni 


